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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: "Gerrit Hulze" <hulze.get@postino.net>
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2012 12:48:27 +0200
Subject: Gerrit Hulze.

Dear

I hope this letter finds you well.
While this email will definitely be coming to you as a surprise, please
take a moment of your time to read this.
It is very important. I am Mr. Gerrit Hulze, working in a Finance house.
However I got your address through the International web directory online.
During our recent reconciliation and auditing of our Finance house
accounts,
my department discovered an over dormant account with a huge amount that
belongs to one of our late customers;.
He has passed away (dead) leaving no beneficiary to the account.
So the funds have been dormant in his account with this Finance house
without any claim or activity on it for quite some time.
Due to our Finance house regulations, It is only a foreigner without / with
the same surname that can stand as a next of kin and it is upon this
discovery that
I decided to contact you to collaborate with you to reactivate these
dormant funds. So to avert any negative development and chance losing these
funds forever.
I want you to stand in as next of kin to our late customer so that the fund
will be released to you.
Further information and confidentiality please contact me on my personal
email address ( ger.hulze@postino.net ) with the following your data: Full
names, Address,
Telephone number and Fax number.

I look forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards,
Mr.Gerrit Hulze.


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