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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: "smith paz" <smthpaz22@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ird_dep_biao@hotmail.fr
Date: Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:23:27 +0100
Subject: Reply


Good day

I want to use you as next of kin to my late customer who made a deposit of
(US$16.500,000)with our bank. He died together with his family in a crash
without any registered next of kin with our bank and as such the funds now
have an open beneficiary mandate.
If you are interested,then you and I will share the fund.

I urgently hope to get your response as soon as possible.

Thanks
Mr Smith Paz

Anti-fraud resources: