Here is my personal collection of 419 scam e-mail messages that I have received in recent months. I started collecting them in the spring of 2005 and expect to continue collecting them.

By posting these, I hope that people who have received these messages and are not aware of these scams might find these examples and avoid being victimized.

A recent newspaper article featured a story about a young Nigerian scammer who decided to extract himself from the shady world of 419 scammers and find a more honest way to make a living. According to the story, these scammers like to target Americans because they think they are stupid and are easily deceived.

I also found it interesting that they think the government will compensate any American who falls victim to one of these scams. I guess even 419 scammers feel better when they have a nice fantasy to help ease their conscience a bit.

I have changed the formatting on some of these messages to make them more readable, but have left everything else intact so as not to diminish their inherent entertainment value.

Mr James Robin - Another real tear jerker! Another low-life trying to appeal to people's sympathies. A common theme I see with most of these is their direction to "keep this confidential," "the utmost secret" or other language used to keep the intended victim from talking to anyone about the message. Lest they be tipped off by someone else that it is a scam no doubt!

Barrister Abdal Fattah - Whenever you see a subject like like "Sincere Co-operation Required," the chances of it being anything other than one of these 419 scams is next to nothing.

Jacqueline Ava - This is a bit of a variation of the 419 scam since it targets a business and is not based on the classic method involving the promise of large amounts of money for assisting someone who needs "help." I run other web sites that are used to sell various products, and this was received though an e-mail address associated with one of those sites. I have removed part of the physical address that was mentioned since it may actually belong to some innocent person who has nothing to with with this scam.

Had I actually responded to this message, I likely would have been told that she wants to purchase a large number of my products (probably thousands of dollars worth) and would have paid with a stolen credit card or used some other fraudulent method of payment.

Dr. Obadiah Mailafia - This one has an interesting approach, jumping right in an acting like there is some kind of prior relationship. I hate to disappoint the "doctor," but it's obvious to me that the only degree he has earned is a doctorate of scamming.

This one was a bit of a stroll down memory lane for me since the very first 419 scam message I ever received was from someone claiming to be "Victoria Malafi," who I talked about a bit above.

Hajia Abdulkarim - This one is obviously attempting to scam people of the Muslim faith. They often seem to take advantage of people's religious beliefs with mentions of faith, love and God.

Mrs. Suha Arafat - I simply must include my all-time favorite! As you can see, I received this one back in April and although I hesitate to say so, I thoroughly enjoyed it. No other 419 scam e-mail message provided me with as good a laugh as I had when I read this one.

Nu Th - This one is obviously aimed straight for the heart strings! I like they way he gets right to the point and lets me know he is dying of cancer -- why beat around the bush, eh?

A common theme you will see with many of these messages -- and this is a fine example -- is the mention of God and blessings and whatnot. I'm not sure what that is all about other than they must be trying to relate to westerners, who in their eyes, are likely to be Christians.

Donald Akonotey - Here's one that obviously did more homework than the average 419 scammer. He took the time to customize his message for the real estate industry! What a swell guy!

Mariam Abacha (Alhaja) - As you can see, this one uses the infamous dead give-away word: Nigeria! This is a very typical and classic 419 scam involving the death of someone with lots of money. Perhaps I should have at least sent flowers! Sniff!

Eloy Savimbi - Although not from Nigeria, this one has all the other red flags flying to give it away as a 419 scam.

I love how he opens with "This letter may come to you as a surprise..." Yes, I am surprised that everyone on the planet has not become aware of these scams by now, but since these messages are still flying around the Internet, that is obviously not the case.

MR.phillip_loius - I'm including this one since it is a bit more lengthy than most of the other 419 e-mail I receive.

I note that many of them, like this one, arrive addressed to someone else or addressed to the sender of the message. This is probably because they are using a distribution list to send this crap out to many e-mail addresses or they have included the address that appears in the "To:" field as their main addressee and included my address in the "cc:" field along with many others.

Miss. Faith Nuhan - This one attempts to lend a little credibility to the story by including a couple of web links to news stories on legitimate web sites. No doubt hoping that the reader will be more likely to swallow this boat load of crap since their story is based on and actual, verifiable event.

Barrister Isa Mohammed - Here is yet another variation of the 419 scam. This one adorns himself with the title "Barrister," which, if I am not mistaken, is a common term for an attorney in the U.K., and perhaps other areas. He also uses the links to legitimate news stories to help bolster a little confidence in his story. Nice try, old chap!

MUSA KEHINDE - This one is trying to take advantage of the situation in Iraq. Strange choice of phony name he used from someone in Iraq. This one also makes me wonder if these nitwits are sharing scam letter templates or perhaps I am receiving multiple scam messages from the same scammer. I have seen that "for the family" nonsense before.

R. MARTINS EZE - For heaven's sake, when will they stop mentioning the "N word?" In this case, Nigeria!

William Probyn - Gee whiz! Yet another "life time opportunity!" It's getting to the point where I don't know where to keep them all! How can one human being (me!) be so lucky and receive so many! Gee I wonder why e-mail coming from an account owned by "William Probyn" is being used by a guy named Frank Kwame.

William Probyn - Wow! Is this guy busy! Not only is his apparent friend "Frank Kwame" in need of desperate assistance finding someone to give millions of dollars to, apparently William finds himself in a very similar predicament! What are the odds?

Mrs. Fatima Rasheed - Yet another urgent request from someone dying of a dread disease and anxious to share their fortune with total strangers.

Edward Yeboah - Just gotta love that second-to-last paragraph. Hatched? What the heck does this business do -- something having to do with chickens?

EMMA SANKHO - Including a link to a legitimate news story was kind of clever idea on the part of the scammers the first time I saw it some months back, but at this point they are all doing it and it has become a bit boring.

Swiss Lotto - I'm not sure lotto scams should be classified with 419 scams, but I don't receive enough of them to create a dedicated category for them. I get these ocassionally, and I suspect they are similar to 419 scams in that someone is trying to scam money from the recipients of these message in one way or another. Don't you just love the fact that the "claim agent" has one of those freebie Yahoo.com e-mail addresses? Yeah, that looks real official.

Khalid Ali Hassan - Iraq seems to be the hotspot for these 419 scammers lately. I am receiving fewer messages from scammers claiming to be from Nigeria and more claiming to be from middle eastern countries. It's likely that these are being sent by our old friends in Nigeria who are just using a more "happening" locale for their evil purposes.

Saleem Mohd Ahmed Mohd - Yet another unoriginal effort focusing in a middle eastern country.

Mr Hassan Rufai - Very typical 419 scam. Over utilized and quite a boring read to boot.

Patrick Alamieyeseigha - Apparently this guy did not bother taking the time to personalize his e-mail message. Someone needs to tell him that "Dear" should be followed by a name. And how about that closing line where he links to a news story on the web in an attempt to legitimize his story? Nice try, Pat!

ALHAJI IBRAHIM DANKWAMBO - More typical 419 crap, but I just love this guy's name. It's kind of fun to say. Dankawambo. Dankawmbo. Dankawambo. See what I mean?

Barrister ZOLA MAXWELL - Considering that this is the third message in a row featuring the "N word" (Nigeria!), I could feel an acute attack of apathy stalking me, but when I saw the "born again Christian" routine, I must admit I succumbed to a chuckle or two. I'll give this guy a few extra points for entertainment value.

Mrs. Kan Khan - A (wealthy) damsel in distress in, of all place, Iraq! How could I refuse such an offer?

Mr. Adam Anthony - For someone with such a western-sounding name, I would expect better use of the English language. Perhaps it is more "imartant" for "Mr. Anthony" to invest in some English lessons.

EMMANUEL - This is not the run-of-the-mill 419 scam, but it's close enough to include here. This is the opening dialog that is part of a the classic scam these guys use against e-commerce sites. I run a small e-commerce site and get these once in a while. Since I have only a contact page on the site and no e-mail address listed (to foil the spammers), this one went through the extra effort to visit my site and use the contact page to get his message across.

If you sell stuff on the net, this is the kind of thing you want nothing to do with. What's surprising is that these guys don't seem to even take the time to evaluate a site very well before attempting their scam. The site I run does not sell high-priced items, so it's hard for me to imagine how they figure they can make a killing scamming products out of me. Our products are of interest only to a small, very specific group of hobbiests, so I'm sure it would not be easy to unload any goods that they managed to get from us. Perhaps there is more to the scam that just attempting to obtain merchandise.

Mrs. Aminatu Bolkiah - Interesting how this one claims to have gotten my name of some "philanthropist list." At the risk of diminishing the world's opinion of me, I have to admit that I highly doubt that assertion.

Mrs. Radovanova Petrova - Although I will confess to being greatly moved by her request to "GET BACT TO ME," I'm afraid I don't have a particularly high level of confidence in her professed desire to invest in my company. I am curious, however, about what kind of spiel I would be presented with if I were to actually call the telephone number provided. Maybe some day.

Rose Chabala - I certainly don't get enough of these! This is one of the few that actually provided me with a good laugh. To think that I was actually "CHOSEN FOR THIS MISSION." Yes. for goodness sake, if you are going to send me these lame scam attempts, at least amuse me a little in the process!

Ms H Smith - Typical 419-type scam from someone who apparently forgot to proofread their message carefully before sending it out. You would think these people would be a little more careful about what they are sending when they are blasting crap like this out to hundreds or thousands of e-mail addresses.

Mrs. Mary Garuba - Very heavy on the religious stuff and hoping to take advantage of someone who will be impressed by the claim that they will donate a lot of money to the church and to the needy. They also use the ever-popular tactic of weaving current world events into the story to make it sound more beleivable.

Kojo William - Now here's one I have not seen before. This one is claiming to be from a 16-year-old kid who had inherited a lot of money and needs to escape his country.

Mr. Tunde Williams - More of the same. Very typical 419 scam message.

Sylvia Litana - The only thing someone original about this one is that the scammer is claiming to be from Zambia instead of Nigeria.

Barrister Zola Maxwell - Although this one is yet another one from Nigeria, the heavy-duty "born again" stuff is a bit unique in the sense that it is laid on a bit thicker than most of the others like this I have received.

EUROMILLONES LOTTERY PRIMITIVA (Mr. ANTHONIO GOMEZ) - Although not a classic 419 scam, you can be sure these lottery scammers are trying to extract money from their victims in one way or another.

Mrs Sandra Mckoy - Another example of an attempt to scam one of our online stores. It's hard to imagine that every online store on the entire Internet hasn't received one of these yet!