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: samuel kofi <mrsk_81@hotmail.co.uk>
Reply-To: <samuel_kofi10@gawab.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:04:04 +0000
Subject: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY



From: Mr. Samuel KofiAccra, Ghana.Email:samuel_kofi1@walla.com

Dear Friend:I got your contact during my search for a reliable,honest and a trust worthy person to entrust this huge transfer project with.My name is Mr.Samuel Kofi manager of the financial institution .I am a Ghanaian married with four kids. I am writing to solicit your assistance in the transfer of $4,550.000.00 million U.S dollars only,equivalent to 2.5 million pounds.
This fund is the excess of what my branch in which I am the manager made as profit during the 2005 financial year. I have already submitted annual report for that year to my head office here in Accra as I have watched with keen interest as they will never know of this excess.
I have since, placed this amount of $4,550.000.00 million U.S dollars on an Escrow Coded account without a beneficiary (anonymous) to avoid trace.As an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this money thus I am impelled to request for your assistance to receive this money into your bank account on my behalf.

I intend to part 30% of this fund to you while 70% shall be for me.I do need to stress that there are practically no risk involved in this.It's going to be a bank-to-bank transfer. All I need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund so that the fund can be transferred to your account.If you accept this offer,Please get back to me.But if you're not interested in this please do not reply.

RegardsMr Samuel Kofi
_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today it's FREE!
http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/

Anti-fraud resources: