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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. Pommer Stefan" <pommerstefan76@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 2011 23:07:49 +0000
Subject: Dear Sean Buttermer







Dear Sean Buttermer,

I am Mr Pommer Stefan,a staff of FTB at the Foreign Remittance Department of Bank of Cambodia. In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of (US$5.5M) Five Million, Five hundred thousand United States Dollars only, in an account that belongs to late Mr. Donald Dineros, who died in a ghastly car accident in 2010. Since we got information about his death, the bank has been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies as a next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.

Unfortunately we learn't that he did not name any beneficiary to his account before his sudden death. It is therefore upon this discovery that I and the attorney representing the estate now decided to contact you, and having you in agreement to prosecute this claim, it makes it easier for the money to be released to you since nobody is fronting for the money and we do not want this funds to go into disbursement account as unclaimed bill. It is possible that you may not have any direct relationship with him, but that will not change any thing.

The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after three (3) years the money will be transferred into the government account as unclaimed fund. We shall negotiate on the percentage split of the funds as we proceed. Therefore to enable immediate release of the inheritance to you as arranged, you should contact me immediately via email for further directives on how to go about actualizing the claim in your name. I look forward to your immediate response.

Best regards,

Mr. Pommer Stefan

N/B: I know that this email will come to you as a surprise, considering the fact that it is unsolicited. I quite understand your concern over this matter considering the happenings all over the world; I want to assure you that this is a 100% legitimate and risk free transaction.

Anti-fraud resources: