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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: "Mr. Mike Raymond" <mikeraymond000@me.by>
Reply-To: mikeraymond000@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:38:12 -0700
Subject: READ CAREFULLY


Greetings:

I am sorry to intrude into your private and peaceful life, all the same My
name is Mr. Mike Raymond , I work as an accountant in a bank; I contacted
you to work together with me in claiming my late client's estate.
Unfortunately he died without a registered next of kin and as such the funds
now have an open beneficiary status. You could be made the beneficiary since
you share the same last name with him.This has officially transferred the
right to you, as no other person from his family knows anything about this
fund with our bank.

If you are interested in working with me, please get back to me as quickly
as possible, so that I will give you the details of what we are to do.

I wait for your prompt response so that I can give you more briefing on what
you need to and how to do it.

Thanks for your co-operation.

Best regards from,

Mike Raymond

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