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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.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "MR PATRICK ALI" <mrpatrickali@msn.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Oct 2005 11:15:42 +0000
Subject: FROM MR.PATRICK ALI

FROM MR.PATRICK ALI
DIRECTOR INCHARGE OF
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING UNIT,
CONTINENTAL TRUST BANK,
COTONOU-BENIN REPUBLIC

Good Day,

Pleasure writing to you at this moment of the day, I am Mr.PATRICK ALI the
director incharge of auditing and accounting Unit of Continental Trust Bank
in Cotonou-Benin Republic.

I and my colleagues deem it fit to contact you regarding to a transaction
that will favour both of us at the end, and i got your contact in my search
for a reputable and reliable person to help me claim the fund in question.

We discovered the sum of fiffteen million United States Dollars (USD15M)
belonging to a deceased customer of this bank.
The fund has been lying in asuspence account without anybody coming to put
claim over the money since the account owner late Mr. David Van Buskirk from
San Diego, who was involved in the December 25th Benin plane crash.

Here is the air crash website
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash/index.html
The said fund is now ready for transfer to a foriegn account whose owner
will be portrayed as the beneficiary and next of kin to the deceased
customer of the bank.

The foriegn account owner will impost himself as the next of kin to the
deceased and respond positively like a true next of kin who wishes to speed
up the release and transfer of his inherited fund.

If the over due fund if not claimed by the end of next quarter, the
government of the Federal Republic ofBenin will take over the ownership of
the fund in line with the Federal Edict Act of 1979.

We do not want the government to take over the ownership of this money, that
is why I contacted you for us to do the deal together, so that we will
portray you as the bonafide next of kin to the deceased whose name is Mr.
David Van Buskirk.

If you accept to carry out this project with us, we will offer you 30% of
the total sum, while I and my colleagues involved will take 70% of the total
sum.

Upon your acceptance to do this deal with us, we will jointly effect the
transfer within eight working days.

Be rest assured that, this transaction carries no risk and no extra
responssibilities on your part, except the above mentioned roles and
normally you will be required to maintain absolute information and absolute
secrecy throughout the duration of this transaction, because discussing it
with a third party might jeopardise the entire transaction.

I am looking forward to receiving your interesting response on this project
as this will greatly enrich the both of us at the end.

You may contact me through this alternative email:mrpatrick001@inbox.com

Best Regards,

Mr PATRICK ALI
TEL+229-95284 293.


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