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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "Prof. Charles Soludo" <profcharlessoludo@centralbankgov.com>
Reply-To: prof_soludo1@mail.ru
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 10:20:41 +0000
Subject: I am waiting for your reply.

FROM THE DESK OF THE GOVERNOR
CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA(CBN)
FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

ATTN: SIR/MADAM

IMMEDIATE CONTRACT PAYMENT.CONTRACT #:MAV/NNPC/FGN/MIN/009.

From the records of outstanding contractors due for payment with the
federal government of Nigeria your name and company was discovered as next
on
the list of the outstanding contractors who have not received their
payments.

I wish to inform you that your payment is being processed and will be
released to you as soon as you respond to this letter.Also note that
from my record in my file your outstanding contract payment is us$25.7
million
dollars(Twenty five million seven hundred thousand united states dollars).

Please re-confirm to me if this is inline with what you have in your
record and also re-confirm to me the followings

1)Your full name.
2)Phone, Fax and Mobile #.
3)Company name,Position and Address.
4)Profession, age and marital status.
5)Any form of identification

As soon as this informations are received, your payment will be made to
you in a certified bank draft or wired to your bank account diretly from
central bank of Nigeria and a copy will be given to you for you to take to
your
bank and confirm it.

Get back to me on this e-mail.

Regards,

Prof.Charles Soludo.
Governor(CBN)


Anti-fraud resources: