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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 stella <mrsstella1307@msn.com>
Reply-To: mrs_stella100@sify.com
Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:45:52 +0000
Subject: FROM MRS STELLA AKAH REPLY NEEDED.

Dear friend,
I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department of the bank of Africa. , I know that my message will come to you as a surprise, but never mind I saw your contacts in internet search, after much consideration i decided to write you since I cannot be able to see you face to face at first.
I will like you to take your time to read this mail carefully. I did not mean to embarrass you with my business proposal but i seriously need your assistance. Please this is a confidential matter and it requires urgency. In my department i discovered an abandoned sum of u.s$12.5m dollars (twelve million five hundred thousand usd) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family on monday,31 july,2000, in a plane crash , since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his or her next of kin to come over and claim his money because we can not release it unless some body applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines and laws, but unfortunately we learnt that his supposed next of kin died along side with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.
It is therefore upon this discovery, i now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement, since nobody is coming for it and i don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill. I therefore agree that 50% would be for me and 50% will be for you as foreigner partner,
Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin to the deceased, indicating your bank name, your bank account number, your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location where in the money will be remitted. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.
You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter. Trusting to hear from you immediately.
Yours faithfull
Mrs Stella Akah

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