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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: "Morizben" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <morizbentik2@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2011 19:47:57 -0700
Subject: Hi:

Dear Sir,

I am Moritz Ben, a senior accounting officer of my Bank here in Accra Ghana.
I have a financial transaction that will benefit us. I write you in good faith to solicit for your assistance.

On the course of the 2010 end of the year report I discovered after auditing our account that my branch made Four Million Three Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($4,300,000.00) of which no one is aware of it as I have already submitted an approved end of the year report for the year 2010 to my head office. I have since then PLACED this fund on a SUSPENSE ACCOUNT without a beneficiary.

As an officer in the bank,I cannot be directly connected to this fund hence I am compelled to request for your assistance to receive it into your bank account. I intend to part with 40% of this money as gratification to you while 60% will be for me but I need your own opinion.

There is practically no risk involved in this transaction. It will be a bank-to-bank transfer and i have mapped out plans of executing it with full co-operation of our database administrator who is the only person aware of the fund cause we cant work without him. He will provide the necessary information into our bank's database to give the transaction the required history/legitimacy as well as identify you as the depositor of this fund if you accept to go along with me.

All I need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund and provide an account where it could be transferred by our head office. I will appreciate your timely response as soon as you receive this mail.

NOTE: To indicate interest, please drop your name and phone number for better explanation.

With Regards,
Moritz Ben.

Anti-fraud resources: