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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: Peter Lamin. <lamin.@ozu.es>
Date: Sat, 02 Jul 2011 09:13:14 -0300
Subject: From Peter Lamin (Vital Information)

peterlamin1656@ozu.es
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

Dear sir,

I and my partners (two others) are in urgent need of a foreign associate to work with us to facilitate the transfer of a large sum of Money which we intend to invest into profitable areas of business in your country.

The funds currently secured with a security company is legitimate money rightfully belonging to me and my partners, which was earned from private diamond business deals during our time as top officials at the Diamond Mining Company of Sierra Leone.

Due to unstable political and economic environments in Africa, it is not quite safe investing ones financial future in this part of the World. We are currently living in Banjul capital city of The Gambia and in collaboration with some top officials of the Central Bank of Gambia have concluded arrangements for the transfer. The money involved is eighteen million five hundred thousand US Dollars.

However, as a result of the regulations here, we cannot transfer the funds to your country without having an associate there.

I am writing to know if you could be our overseas associate to handle the transaction privately at your end, whereby the funds shall be transferred through your bank account, for mutual benefits. Our main objective is to invest this money in a profitable venture in your great country.

All aspects of the transaction will be done legitimately from here via the banking process. We propose your commission shall be 20 per cent of the total money been transferred, in view of the importance your role as our overseas partners will be, without which we cannot transfer the funds.

Please consider this proposal seriously and handle with utmost confidentiality the information I have provided you with here. If you are in a position to assist, please get back to me so I can provide further details.

I hope to read from you.
Sincerely,
Peter Lamin.


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