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: madam asseta <madam_asseta00013@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <madam_asseta2@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Aug 2007 18:30:44 +0000
Subject: PLEASE CONFIRM AND GET BACK TO ME IMMEDIATELY.




>FROM THE DESK OF MADAM ASSETA IDRISABILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPT. THE AFRICAN BANK (BOA) OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA FASO .TELE/ +226/78/87/92/56. MY DEAREST ONE , I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department of The African Bank. I saw your contacts in INTERNET SEARCH,After much consideration i decided to write you since I cannot be able to see you face to face at first. I will like you to take your time to read this mail carefully. I did not mean to embarrasse you with my business proposal but I seriously need your assistance. Please this is a confidential matter and it requires urgency.In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of U.S$12.5m dollars (Twelve million five hundred thousand USD) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family into the World Trade Center on September 11,sept 2001 (AMERICA ATTACK). Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless some body applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidlines and laws, but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at 11,sept 2001 (AMERICA ATTACK). leaving nobody behind for the claim. The owner of this account is Mr JOSEPH. F. GRILLO, foreigner and he is the Manager Of petrol chemical service, a chemical engineer by Profession. He died in world trade center as a victim of the September 11,2001 Incident that befall the United State of America, the bank has made series of efforts to contact any of the relatives to claim this money but without success, you can confirm through this website:http://www.september11victims.com/september11Victims/VictimInfo.asp?ID=1260 I now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety andsubsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and I don't want this money to go into the ban treasury as unclaimed bill.The banking law and guidine here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after Seven years, the money will be tranfered into the bank treasurey as unclaimed bill I therefore agree that 40%of this money will be for you as foreigner partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 10% will be set aside for expenses incured during the business and 50% would be for me. There after I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated. Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin to the deceased indicating your bank name, your bank account number, your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location where in the money will be remitted. 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 as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon as you recieve this letter. Trusting to hear from you immediately. Yours faithfully, MADAM ASSETA IDRISA
_________________________________________________________________
Make every IM count. Download Windows Live Messenger and join the i’m Initiative now. It’s free. 
http://im.live.com/messenger/im/home/?source=TAGWL_June07

Anti-fraud resources: