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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: private box <tipbox01@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 04:54:37 -0800 (PST)
Subject: URGENT TRANSFER OF US$85,000,000.00


FROM THE DESK OF:DR. ARINZE CHIKA

DEAR FRIEND

SUBJECT: TRANSFER OF US$85,000,000.00(EIGHTY FIVE MILLION
U.S.DOLLAR) INTO YOUR ACCOUNT.

May we kindly write you for the transfer of US$85,000,000.00 (EIGHTY FIVE MILLION U.S.DOLLAR) into your account.

I am DR.ARINZE CHIKA, a Senior audit accountant with the Federal Ministry of Mines And Power, Lagos-Nigeria. During our auditing in the last financial year, my audit team discovered this sum of US$85,000,000.00(EIGHTY FIVE MILLION U.S.DOLLAR) in the floating account of the Federal Ministry of Mines and
Power.

This money originated as a result of overestimated contracts awarded by the Federal Ministry of Mines and Power to some Foreign Companies.

Now that these foreign companies have received their contract payments accordingly, I and my audit team wants to transfer this over-estimated sum of
US$85,000,000.00 into you Account to enable us invest in your country especially in waste management andcontainer businesses.

I hope that your account can sustain this volume of funds .We are familiar with the sequence of this transaction and wish to re-assure you that this
business is highly secured and feasible with little or no risk involved. More importantly, I wish to remind you of the need to keep this transaction
absolutely confidential for all officials involved are Senior Government functionaries. Further more, on receipt of your acceptance letter, we will obtain some payment approvals on behalf of your company from Government offices in Nigeria, which present your company as the executor of a contract and bonafied
beneficiary of the US$85M.

The ministries are the Federal Ministry of Mines and Power, the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria.

With your full cooperation this business will be concluded and the money transferred into your account within two weeks.

We have decided to earmark 45% of the total sum for the account holder, and 50%for us in Nigeria, while 5% is set aside for any expenses incurred in the course of this transaction further details will be given to you as soon as I receive your reply.

Thanks for your anticipated co-operation.

As you reply do not forget to include your telephoneand fax numbers for easy communication and also your postal contact details to enable me get legal
documents on your behalf.

Sincerely yours,

ARINZE CHIKA.


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