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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: "Li Clark"<charrison@echo1.com.au>
Reply-To: <palegebob@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 3 Aug 2014 05:24:47 -0400
Subject: Re:8/2/2014-- IZYEGCDZXR

From: Li Clark
Email: liclark@07168.cn
Hello,
I am the Learning and Development Manager at Hang Seng Bank China. I write you regarding the estate of Alfred (Deceased) and an investment placed under our bank's management 5 years ago.
I respectfully request you observe confidentiality for the integrity of the information you come by henceforth. In 2005, Alfred engaged in business discussions with our private banking division. He had a financial portfolio of 14.5M in USD which he wished to have us invest on his behalf.
Based on my advice, we spun the money around various opportunities and made attractive margins for our first months of operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at this point over 10M in USD. In mid 2007, he instructed that the principal sum (14.5M) be liquidated because he needed to make urgent investments requiring cash payments in Hong Kong and China.
We got in touch with a specialist bank in Hong Kong, Fubon Bank who agreed to receive this money for a fee and make cash available.

Fubon Bank got in touch with us last year that this money has not been claimed. On further enquiries we found out that Alfred was involved in an accident in Mainland China, which means he died intestate, he has no next of kin, I write you for this reason because due to our code of conduct we are not allowed to show personal interest on funds of this nature and on the fact that you are based abroad. More so, I got your email through the commerce of trade foreign division. What I propose is that since I have exclusive access to his account file, you will be made the beneficiary of these funds. On verification, which will be the details I make available to my bank, my bank will instruct Fubon Bank to make payments to you. You do not have to have known him. please trust me on this. For all your troubles I propose that we split the money in half 50/50 each. The other option is that the money will revert back to the state of Hong Kong as unclaimed. Nobody is getting hurt; this is a lifetime opportunity for us and
Do not betray my confidence. If we can be of one accord, we should act swiftly on this.My contact is: liclark@07168.cn
Thank you in anticipation.
Mr. Li Clark

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