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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:
Reply-To: <victor.garcia@accountant.com>
Date: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 16:08:32 +0000
Subject: Important mail Victor

Good day,
I personally discovered a dormant account　with a total sum of €12,650,000.00 　[Twelve Million, Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Euros] belonging to my late client "John Shumejda" during the　financial company annual account auditing.　
The owner of this dormant account is a foreigner "John Shumejda" by name　 who died on January 5, 2002, in a plane crash in Birmingham; Please view　 the news of of his death on this CNN webpage,
　http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/01/04/england.plane/　
since the death of the deceased, nobody has operated this account till date.　
Moreover, this account has no BENEFICIARY attached to it.　
Definitely, the FINANCE COMPANY CODE OF ETHICS will be liable to confiscate this fund if　it remains dormant for a period of [12] years without any claims.　
In this regard, I earnestly need your full cooperation in transferring this dormant　funds out from the Finance Company where the total valued sum of €12,650,000.00 Euros　is being deposited, to avoid confiscating this fund. If you are willing to work with me I would like you to get back to me for further directives.
　
P.S. i will remit 40% of this funds to you for your co-operation　and for personal reasons i will keep my name anonymous until we establish acquaintance
　
Regards

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