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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: "Bernard Looney" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mr.bernardll@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2012 06:01:30 -0400
Subject: REPLY URGENTLY !

Mr.Bernard Looney
BP Plc
International Headquarters,
London 1 Square St James's SW1Y 4PD United Kingdom.
http;//www.bp.com
 
 
Dear Sir/Madam,
 
 
Permit me to introduce myself. I am the Executive Vice President of Development at British Petroleum Plc (BP), and a member of the management team of BP. In April 2011 I was appointed to head a committee of seven men (7) to investigate and research contracts awarded by British Petroleum from March 2007 to February 2011, after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In the course of our duty, we discovered among other things, that a whopping sum of £16,400,000.00 (Great British Pounds) is floating in the bank account of the British Petroleum (BP) at Bank of England unclaimed. After a more thorough investigation, we discovered that the amount was the result of an over-invoiced contract. The BP Chief Financial Officer told us in a closed session that he personally masterminded the over-invoicing of the original contract for the supply of Scavenger 2000 Depollution Boats with Voraxial Separators for the cleaning of the oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico for the sole purpose to tran sfer and use the surplus. Now we
Upon the receipt of your reply confirming your interest in working with us on this project, we will discuss the terms of transaction and and give you details as we have carefully worked out the modalities for a safe transfer of the funds.
 
 
With confidence,
Bernard Looney

Anti-fraud resources: