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: "Mr John Thomas Kofi" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrjohnkofithomas@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 6 May 2024 16:18:17 -0700
Subject: BEST REGARDS,

BEST REGARDS,

I am Sorry for invading into your privacy.,

My name is Mr John Thomas kofi, The Branch Manager of a Financial Institution. I got your contact through a reliable source called database through Ghana chamber of commerce. I am a Ghanaian married with 3 kids. I am writing to solicit your assistance in the transfer of US$14,500,000.00 Dollars. This fund is the excess of what my branch in which I am the manager made as profit this Half year (i.e. 2023 financial year). After I submitted an annual report for this year and a half in 2023 to my head office in Accra-Ghana, I watched with keen interest as they never knew of this excess. I placed this amount of US$14,500,000.00 Dollars on an Escrow Coded account without a beneficiary (Anonymous) to avoid a 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 agree that 40% of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, and 60% would be for me and I will join you in your country once the fund arrives in your account for an Investment plan. I do need to stress that there is practically no risk involved in this. It's going to be a bank-to-bank transfer OR E-online 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, I will appreciate your timely response to me.This is why and the only reason why I contacted you, I am willing to go into partnership investment with you owing to your wealth of experience, So please if you are interested to assist on this venture kindly contact me back for a brief discussion on how to proceed.

Best regards,
Mr john Thomas kofi,

Anti-fraud resources: