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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "martins odame" <welcome50@msn.com>
Reply-To: martinsodame@mail.nu
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 2005 19:56:37 +0000
Subject: REPLY

Hello.

The purpose of this letter is to briefly introduce myself and I would like
to intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to
you.

My name is Mr Martins Odame,I work in executive capacity with CARGO HANDLING
& SECURITY TRUST COMPANY in Lagos. I joined the services of this company in
1985. I decided to contact you believing that you will become my overseas
Business assocaites in acquiring an investment placed under our management
more than seven (7) years ago.

I have worked with this company for over 20 years,within this period of time
I watched with meticulous precision on how Head of State and government
functionaries have been moving huge sums of money with the aid of their
foreign partners abroad. They bring in these consignment and declare the
content
as jewelries, Gold, Precious Stones, Family Treasure, Documents,etc.

These people have at one time or the other deposite consignments with us and
their foreign partners,relatives and Next of Kin are Claiming most of these
consignment and a lot more are laying here unclaimed for as much as 7 years,
as no available information to anybody except the depositors, and most of
them
are dead. Since the inception of the year 2004,the Management changed!the
procedure of claiming of consignments. As soon as you are able to produce
all the information as contained in the secret file of the company as regard
the consignment, it will be released to you upon demand.

>From our records, more than 10 consignments belonging to these people has
been claimed in the past six months and this is why I am seeking for your
co-operation and assistance to help execute this pending deal which has been
unclaimed for so long as I know no one will ever come forward to
claim it because the deceased left no next of kin.The amount in question is
very small compared to what my office has sent overseas for this people. I
will provide all the documents needed for this purpose as I was the account
officer who handled most this transaction on behalf of this client.

For the release of the consignment, Our Overseas correspondent will demand
for some documents and the security code of the consignment, you will call
on
me to supply you with every detailed Information as regard the consignment.
As soon as they have confirmed it to be correct, the company will invite you
for the collection, or you may insist that the consignment be delivered to
you instead.

I hope to hear from you to enable me provide you
with the complete picture of this deal.
Funish me with the following

Full Names/Mailing address/Telephone and fax numbers.

Expecting yor urgent Response.

Mr Martins Odame.


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