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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.

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

Fraud email example:

From: Mr Hassan Karim <drhasska@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:33:56 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: I AM WAITING FOR YOUR URGENT RESPONSE.




My dear good friend,



How are you doing today hope all is fine?



I am Mr.Hassan Karim a Banker at the Bank of Africa (BOA) Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. I know that this message might come to you as a surprise as we never met before. However it’s all just my urgent need for a foreign partner that made me to contact you for this transaction. I am contacting you to seek your interest over a business deal of $20,000.000, to transfer it to your account. The depositor of the said fund died with his entire family on a plane crash 2005.



The deceased customer used his wife as the next of kin but unfortunately, the wife and the two kids died along side with him leaving nobody for the claim. According to our banking law, if the fund remains unclaimed for (6 years) then the fund will be transferred into the reserve bank as unclaimed bill, and if the fund is been transferred into reserve bank as unclaimed bill the directors will share it among themselves. I don't want the fund to go into the bank treasury account as unclaimed bill, that is the reason why I want to transfer the fund to you as the next of kin, let us claim the fund The percentage will be 50% for me and 50% for you.



I will present you to my bank as his cousin or business partner so that my bank will transfer the fund into your bank account for us to share it, contact me for more details but if you are not capable please notify me.



I am waiting to hear from you for more details.



Thanks,

Mr.Hassan Karim.

Anti-fraud resources: