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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: "oscar harolds" <o_harolds844@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: o_harolds702@yahoo.de
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 03:16:46 +0000
Subject: very urgent

Dear friend,
I came across your e-mail address in the chambers of commerce and
industries
and i felt that you can be of assistance to me.
I want to transfer out (US$16.25M) from our bank here, I have the
courage to
contact you for this important transaction, believing that you will
never
let me down either now or in future.
I am Mr.Oscar Harolds a united states citizen,working in Nigeria as the
auditor and head of computing department of our bank, HALIFEX bank here
in
Nigeria. There is an account opened in this bank in 1995 and since my
inception into office in 2001, nobody has operated on this account
again,
after going through some old files, I discovered that if i do not remit
this
money out urgently, it will be forfeited for nothing.
I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money can not be
approved to any local bank here in Nigeria, but can only be approved to
any
foreign account because the money is dollars and the former owner of
the
account was Eshed B Williams and he was a foreigner too.
Once am sure you are capable of assisting me out, i will give you more
details of this transaction.
Sincerely,
Mr.Oscar Harolds

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