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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: Ibrahim Zaki <ibrahimzaki307@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Ibrahim Zaki <zibrahim61@yahoo.fr>
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 10:25:39 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: urgent


BANK IN AFRICAOUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO,WEST AFRICA.  Dear Friend,                               Greeting to you!!!                        I know that this mail will come to you as a surprise as we never met before. I am the Director in charge of Auditing in  Bank in Africa, I Hoped that you will not expose or betray this trust and confident that I am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of our both families. I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of eight point three  Million  united state dollars ($8.3 000 000.m USD) Immediately to your account. The fund has been dormant (in-active) for 5 years in our Bank here without any body coming for it. I want to release the fund to you as the nearest person to our deceased customer (the owner of the account) who died a long with his supposed next of kin in air crash since on February 24, 2007. I don't want the fund to go into our Bank treasury as an abandoned fund, so this is the reason why I contacted you, so that my Bank will release the fund to you as the nearest person to the deceasedcustomer. Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not interested. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send you the application form you will fill and send to the bank for transfer of the fund into your bank account and also note that you will have 40% of the above mentioned amount if you agree to help me execute this business.And also 10% had been mapped out for you for the expense you will make in this transaction and 50% is for me. I need your information so that I will send you the application form. 
                                   YOUR FULL  INFORMATIONYour Name.........Your Home Addresses.. ....City.. ......Country.. ......Home Telephone.. .....Private Telephone.. ......Fax No.. ......Marital Status.. ......Age.. ......Occupation.. .......Religion.. .........your passport.....

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