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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: "Usman Abdullahi" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <usmanab113@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 19:12:51 -0700
Subject: Dear fraud victim!!!

Dear fraud victim,

This is to inform you that four of the fraud syndicate that defrauded you were caught while two escaped. Investigation revealed that these men and women were using fake identities and forged documents to scam innocent people. They confessed that they used tricks of fictitious Contracts, Inheritance, Lottery and all other manner of enticing tricks to defraud their victims. They were caught in attempt to defraud one Briton.

They have been sentenced to Twelve years jail term each. Expensive cars, Houses, jewelries, laptop computers, stocks and shares including some cash deposits were recovered from them. The court has sold all the properties confiscated from them to realize money to refund their numerous victims. I am contacting you based on the confessional testimony of the fraudsters that you were among their victims. To this effect, if you have lost money to fraudsters in the past, please do get back to me immediately with the following information:

1. Your Full name and contact Address.
2. The total amount you lost.
3. Your direct Phone number
4. Your photo identification

As soon as the above information is received, you will sign your refund/reimbursement documents at the court and the court will instruct the bank holding the recovered money to refund you with immediate effect. Please do not be deceived by the bogus claims of money in Nigeria or Africa because Africa is a very poor continent with greater percentage of its population living in abject poverty. Please spread this news to your friends and relative that there is no such bogus money in Africa as claimed by fraudsters so that more innocent people won‘t fall victim of fraud especially in this time of economic meltdown.

If you are not the person they defrauded please disregard this mail as it was sent to you based on confessional testimony and information provided by the jailed fraudsters. I am aware that the escaped fraudsters might still be communicating you from clandestine locations. Please if you receive any communication from them, don’t reply from henceforth. If you need further clarifications, contact me directly.

Yours faithfully,
Honorable Justice Usman Abdullahi
(President, Court of Appeal Nigeria & Chairman, Crusade for better Nigeria)
Tel: +234-802-096-275-1

Anti-fraud resources: