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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: Usman Azizi <usmanazizi@voila.fr>
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010 14:22:52 GMT
Subject: FROM THE DESK OF DR USMAN AZIZI

FROM THE DESK OF DR USMAN AZIZI

Attention please.

I am Dr.USMAN AZIZI ,I AM THE BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER OF BANK OF AFRICA (BOA) BURKINA FASO,WEST AFRICA BRANCH.

I am contacting you based on Trust and confidentiality that you will keep this as top secret.don't be scared or surprised, i am the manager of BANK OF AFRICA and i have an opportunity totransfer sum of US($14.MILLION US DOLLARS) I have the courage to look for a reliable and Honest Person who will be capable for this important business.Transaction,believing that you will never let me down either now or in Future.

The owner of this account is JOSEPH F. GRILLO, foreigner and he is the Manager of petrolchemical service, a chemical engineer by Proffession.He died in world trade center as a victim of the September 11,2001 Incident that befall the United State of America, the bank has made series of efforts to contact any of the relatives to claim this money but without success, you can confirm through this website: http://www.september11victims.com/september11Victims/VictimInf
o.asp?ID60

And my investigation proved to me as well that his company does not know anything about this account.I want to transfer this money into a safe foreign account abroad but I Don't know any foreigner,I know that this message will come to you as a surprise as we don't know ourselves before, but be sure that it is real And A Genuine business.Hope that you will never let me down in this transaction, at the conclusion of this business, you will be giving 30% of the total amount, 70% will be for me.I look forward to your earlier reply by email for more details

Thanks Regards.

Dr.USMAN AZIZI
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
BANK OF AFRICA-(BOA)

Anti-fraud resources: