419 scam: "michael leyden"<michaelleyden247@gmail.com> Good Day

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "keep this confidential" (scammers urge victims to keep the transaction secret because they don't want anyone to point out to them that it is a scam)
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
This email message is a next of kin scam.
This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447024056605 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: "michael leyden" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <michaelleyden4life@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 08:50:13 -0700
Subject: Good Day

MR.Michael Leyden,
Accounting Officer,
BANK SADERAT PLC
5, Lothbury,London,
EC2R 7HD,UNITED
KINGDOMPERSONAL Telephone: +44 7024056605

My name is Mr. Michael Leyden, an accounting officer with BANK SADERAT PLC. I am the Accounting Officer to late Mr. James Wilson, a businessman. In July 2, 2005, the subject matter, Mr.Wilson died of a Sudden Cardiac Death: His personal attorney was soon able to identify the body and cause of death was confirmed.
Recently, I was contacted by the Bank Manager based on the deceased deposit of the sum of (6.2m) "SIX Million Two Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling" with the Above security firm.

The Security Firm, however advised me to contact any of his relative because for the past four years now, the account have been dormant, and all dormant accounts are usually reverted to government treasure as unclaimed after two years.Based on this, I contacted his attorney and he informed me that the deceased died with no next of kin mentioned. He however immediately launched an investigation into possible surviving next of kin to alert about the situation and also to come forward to claim his estate, but all attempts and effort to get in touch with the family or relations of deceased from your country proved abortive. For this reason, we decided to seek for a reliable and trustworthy person whose name shall be used as the next of kin.

In the event, I got your contact via the internet of which I was convinced by providence that you could be used as next of kin. I have also contacted you due to the ULTIMATUM of twenty one days from now and pressure from bank which says that if I failed to provide them with the name of the next of kin, the account will be closed finally or redirected to government treasury as unclaimed funds as constituted by law on banking industries/finance houses.

I await your positive response ASAP so as furnish you with private and privileged information that will give you more insight to this issue. I guarantee that this will be executed under legitimate arrangements that will protect you from any breach of the law. Please let keep this confidential.Get back with this email

Best regards,
Mr. Michael Leyden

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam