joewein.net   joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days
  jwSpamSpy

Home
About Us
Spam
419/Nigeria
Fraud
Contact

"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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

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

Fraud email example:

From: "andrew eze" <andrew_eze101@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: andrew_eze101@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 05 Jan 2006 15:50:41 +0000
Subject: NICE TO CONTACT YOU ,very very urgent.


FROM THE DESK OF ANDREW EZE
CITI TRUST BANK ACCOUNT OFFICER,
14 ADEOLA ADEKU VICTORIA ISLAND,
LAGOS NIGERIA
EMAIL:andrew_eze101@yahoo.com
 
Dear  Sir/Mad,
 
I want to transfer ($26,000.000.00 USD) Twenty six million United States Dollars from a CITI TRUST BANK, here in Nigeria to oversea account. First, I must solicit your strictest confidence in this transaction.This is by virtue of it's nature as being utterly confidential. I am sure and have confidence of your ability and reliability to prosecute a ransaction of this great magnitude.
 
I  solicit your assistance to enable us transfer the said amount into your safe account for unward investment.You can either provide us with an existing account or to set up a new Bank account immediately to receive this money, even an empty a/c can serve to receive this money, as long as you will remain honest to me till the end for this important business trusting in you and believing that you will never let me down either now or in future.I am the personal account officer to a great late INDUSTRIALIST who has an account in one of the top banks here in Nigeria.
 
The account was opened in 2001 and he died in 2003 without a written or oral WILL and since 2001 nobody has operated on this account again  hence the money is floating and if I do not remit this money out urgently it will be for feited for nothing since the bank has been sold on Wed, 19 Mar 2004 to another bank and the management of the bank is now ready to release the fund to any foreigner who has the correct information of the account before fully handing over the  management to the new bank.The owner of this account is a foreigner and no other person knows about this account or anything concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and  until his  death  he  was  the  manager of the company .
 
My investigation through the National immigration department proved to me as well that he was single as at the point of his entry into the Republic of Nigeria. The amount in this account is USD$26 Million (Twenty six Million United States Dollars ) only.As a matter of fact, I have decided to transfer this fund abroad for investment. Your assistance as a foreigner is necessary because the management of the bank will welcome any foreigner who has correct information to this account which I will give you immediately, if you are interested to do this business with me. There is no risk to this usiness. With my position  and my personal contact with the manager of the bank, the money can be transferred to any account  you can provide with assurance that this money will be intact pending our physical arrival in your country for sharing.
 
We will start the first transfer with Six million [$6,000.000]. Upon successful transfer without any disappointment  from your side, we shall re-apply for the payment of the remaining  balance of  $20 million to your account. I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money can not be approved to a local person here,  but can only be approved to any foreigner  who has the correct information of The account which I will provide to you.So you should provide me with your correct account detail where you will like the fund to be transferred or you can set up a new account for the transfer even an empty account is ok.
 
At the conclussion of the transfer you will take 35% for you, 5% for any expenses incurred in this business and the remaining 60% for me. As soon as I hear from you and upon your strong assurance that you willnot let me down once the fund goes into your account I will then start to process the transfer of the fund to your account without further delay.
 
Thanks.
Yours Faithfully,
Dr Andrew Eze.
 

Anti-fraud resources: