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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

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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.

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

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Fraud email example:

From: <leomathew@entryweb.it>
Reply-To: leomattew002@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 16:11:28 +0200
Subject: FROM MR. LEO

MR. LEO MATHEW
JOHANNESBURG
SOUTH AFRICA



Dear Sir,



Courtesy of business opportunity, I take liberty anchored onstrong desire to solicit for your assistance on this mutual beneficiary and risk free transaction with you, which I hope you give urgent attention. To be precise.

I am MR. LEO MATHEW Senior manager of ABSA BANK Limited
JOHANNESBURG SOUTH AFRICA. In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of US$ 35.5 Million(THIRTY five Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our customers who died along with his entire family in 1988 Lockerbie Pan American Airline plane crash.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come overand claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applied for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking procedures, but unfortunately to no avail and nobody has come forward to claim the money.

Therefore, upon this discovery that I and other two officials in my department now decided to establish a cordial business relationship with you,hence my contacting you. We want you to purportedly present your good self asthe next of kin or relation of the deceased
so that we can release the fund (money)into your account for safety and subsequent disbursementsince nobody is coming for it and again we do not want the money to going to the government account as unclaimed bill .

The banking law and procedures herein stipulates that any accounts abandoned or dormant for a period of some years is subject to be closed and all money contained therein will be forfeited to the government treasury account. Now itis being speculated that the above sum will be transferred into government treasury account as unclaimed fund on or before August 2005.

The reason for you to present your good self as the next of kin is occasioned by the fact that the deceased customer was a foreigner.Mode of Sharing After the successful completion of the transfer is as follows, for the role you will be expected to play inthe whole exercise, we have agreed to give you Thirty (30%) of the total sum,and the remaining 70% shall be for my colleagues and I in support of therefore mentioned, you are urged to reply this letter indicating your readiness and interest to participate in the business.

After your reply, you will be advised on the next step afterwards. I quite believe that you will protect our interest by keeping this business top secret and confidential. Your interest will be equally protected,as we must maintain maximum confidentiality.

Count on your earliest reply.

Thanks
Yours faithfully

MR. LEO

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam