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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: j4zuma1976@yahoo.fr
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 10:06:54 +0200
Subject: JOYCE




My Dear,
I am MRS JOYCE ZUMA, The bill and exchange manager in African
Development Bank., Cotonou, Benin Republic in West Africa.
I am writing in respect of a foreign customer of our Bank (Mr Jang
Seajoon) who perished along with his next of kin with Korean Air Line,
flight number 801 with the whole passengers on 6th of august 1997 and
for your perusal you can view this site:
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/06/guam.passenger.list
Since the demise of this our customer, I personally have watched with
keen interest to see the next of kin but all has proved abortive as no
one has come to claim his funds of US$35M (Thirty five million United
States Dollars) which has been with our branch for a very long time.
On this note, I decided to seek for whom his name shall be used as the
Next of Kin since nobody is coming for the fund again. The Banking
ethics here do not allow such money to staymore than 10 years, because
the money will be recalled to our Banks treasury as unclaimed fund
after this period.
In view of this, I contacted a friend of mine who works with the
Chamber of Commerce and Industries to assist me in getting a reliable
and trusted partner who would submit an application as the next of kin
or business partner to the late customer of the bank.
The reason for a foreigner in the business is for the fact that the
deceased man was a foreigner and it is not authorized by the law
guiding our Bank for a citizen of this country to make the claim of
the fund.So the request for you as a foreigner to come into the
business is necessary, it will facilitate the release and transfer of
the funds smoothly to your nominated bank account as the only
surviving relation/partner to the deceased.
If you can conveniently assure me of your ability to keep this
business very secret and confidential, you can write back to me giving
me your telephone/fax numbers sothat I can send to you the specimen
application for claims which you have to send to our bank. Please,
note that upon the successful transfer of the funds to your bank
account, you shall be entitled to 30% of the total funds while the
rest will be given to me on arrival in your country.
I will not fail to bring to your notice that this business is risk
free and doesn't have any negative implication
Waiting for your urgent response and please kindly delete if you are
not interested.

Regards,
Mrs Joyce Zuma


 

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