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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: "herbert_leonard02@yahoo.fr" <officemail001001014@libero.it>
Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2014 19:12:08 +0100 (CET)
Subject: STRICTLY BETWEEN YOU AND ME.

Greetings!

After much consideration on this matter, I decided to contact you, my name is
Herbert Leonard, I am seeking your consent to present you as the next of kin to
a deceased customer of our bank who died years back without any established
heirs so that the bank will not confiscate his deposit of (US$6.2M) and return
it to the Government of Benin.

Also note that the deceased deposit has an open beneficiary and any foreigner
can put claim over the fund irrespective of your tribe, names and religion
provided you have the secret information on the security file jacket of the
deceased deposit which I will furnish to You upon demand by authorities of my
bank.

I am only contacting you as a foreigner because these funds cannot be approved
to a local Bank here but can only be approved to any foreign bank account
because the money is in US Dollar account and the former owner of the account
Late Mr. Fernando R. Olmos, is from your region too. My aim is to source a
honest and trustworthy individual to whom I can entrust these funds and who
will act as trustee pending my arrival in your country since my period of
disengagement from service is near.

More details will be given to you as soon as you reply on my private email,

Regards,

Herbert Leonard.

Anti-fraud resources: