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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

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

Fraud email example:

From: "ahmed ibrahim" <ahmedibrahim105@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2006 16:27:55 +0000
Subject: FROM/AHMED IBRAHIM

FROM/AHMED IBRAHIM

AHMED IBRAHIM
BANK OF AFRICA(BOA)
BURKINA FASO
OUAGADOUGOU - BURKINA FASO.
Dear Friend,

I know that this mail will come to you as a surprise. I am the bill and
exchange manager in Bank of Africa Burkina Faso. I Hoped that you will not
expose or betray this trust and confident that I am about to repose on you
for the mutual benefit of our both families.

We need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of $10.5million
immediately to your account. The money has been dormant for years in our
Bank here without any body coming for it.
We want to release the money to you as the nearest person to our deceased
customer(the owner of the account)who died a long with his supposed next of
kin in an air crash since Jully
2000.http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

We don't want the money to go into our Bank treasury as an abandoned fund.
So this is the reason why I contacted you, so that we will can release the
money to you as the nearest person to the deceased customer. Please we would
like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete if you are not
interested.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send you full details on how the business
will be executed and also note that you will have 30% of the above mentioned
sum if you agree to transact the business with me, 10 % will be set aside
for expenses incurred during the business, I will not fail to bring to your
notice that this transaction is hitch free and that you should not entertain
any atom of fear.
I expect that your reply for more details immediately you receive this
letter.
yours faithfully
Ahmed Ibrahim

_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources: