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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: Mrs Patricia Hewitt MP <info@msn.com>
Reply-To: pathw_mp@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 15:25:02 -0500
Subject: Humanitarian Help Required


Dear Friend,
I am Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt MP. Leicester's first woman MP in 1997
when I was elected Labour MP for Leicester West, held a variety of
top ranking roles in the Cabinet, including Cabinet Minister for
Women and Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, and my last
appointment was the Secretary of State for Health under Her Majesty,
Queen Elizabeth of the United Kingdom.I actually got your contact
info via your country’s national directory and intend
introducing a project that has to do with charity in your country and
neighbouring countries around you.
Before my retirement, I personally made an over estimation, and
stacked the sum of Six Million Three Hundred Thousand Great Britain
Pounds which I totally intend for the purpose of charity and none
other which will be supervised by an Attorney as he will also be the
one in charge of securing these funds into your custody.
This transaction will result to you being paid a commission of 11%
of the investment capital
and the balance, distributed to charity
organizations of your choice or reinvested and the net income, used
for rehabilitating charity organization in and around your country
through you/your agency annually for the period of five years or a
little more. The last time I orchestrated this sort of Grant, the
individual in Australia succeeded in successfully setting up three
standard orphanage homes in less than a year. I have never been so
proud of such a noble individual.If you are willing to execute this
Humanitarian Project, You must understand that I desire absolute
confidentiality and professionalism on this issue.
Please respond urgently if you are interested as the fund are
getting overdue, so I can equip you with the necessary details, along
side my Attorney’s contact information, so as to commence the
transaction properly; on the other hand, if you are not, please let
your intentions be known or better still, Kindly relent from replying
this email.You could get
personal info. on me via the Parliament sites
or on my official website, but do not try to contact me via any
personal information you may lay your hands upon on the internet as
almost all my contact info are connected to the British House of
Parliament data base except the ones I personally sent to you; as I
don’t want our effort and my reputation, jeopardized.
Kindly send your response to this E-mail:
pathw_mp@yahoo.com.hk

Anti-fraud resources: