419 scam: "Morgan Swank"<morganswank@sify.com> VITAL INFORMATION.

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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

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

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "Morgan Swank" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <morganswank@9.cn>
Date: Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:47:49 +0800
Subject: VITAL INFORMATION.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have made series of efforts to reach you on telephone concerning your funds which was discovered in a dormant account with our bank.

I discovered that your funds was floating in an account here in Allied

bank (my branch) and the money could not be transferred because of lack

of proof for the source of the funds also the transfer was not authorized

by you since your name was in the document.

I had to trace the documents to find out that the funds original belongs

to you and I decided to contact you so that you can have a smooth

transfer. I will appreciate if you can offer me 5% of the total money so

that I will work with you concerning this issue.

The account where the fund is deposited is currently dormant and if you

accept the agreement of offering me 5% of the funds then we can work and I

will guard you on the step on how you can get the funds release and you

will transfer the funds from you sitting room via your telephone because

that is a more secured way of doing bank transfers currently to avoid fraud.

I will be waiting for your call once you accept my proposal and I promise you that the funds will be accessible under 4days.

Thanks

Yours faithfully

Mr. Morgan swank.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam