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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: "Bank Of America Service" (may be fake)
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:43:48 +0200
Subject: attention that your Bank Of America account information




dear customer Bank of america,

Caution ! Attempted intrusion into your account Bank of america! Someone with the IP address 166.205.5.25 tried to access your ; Personal Account! We kindly ask you to connect your Bank of america account and update your information confidential ! You have within 24 hours to restore access to your caccount without those latter will be definitively removed .

You can also confirm your email address by logging into your account Bank of america.

https://www.bankofamerica.com/index.jsp

*Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC. Equal Housing LenderEqual Housing Lender © 2009 Bank of America Corporation. All rights reserved.*

Anti-fraud resources: