419 Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam (2006-01)

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "await your urgent response" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
This email message is a fake lottery scam. Consider the following facts about real lotteries:
1. They don't notify winners by email.
2. You can't win without first buying a lottery ticket.
3. They don't randomly select email addresses to award prizes to.
4. They don't use free email accounts (Yahoo, Hotmail, etc) to communicate with you.
5. They don't tell you to call a mobile phone number.
6. They don't tell you to keep your winnings secret.
7. They will never ask a winner to pay any fees to receive a prize!
This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447011120798 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- dr.richand_colliouis2012@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "HEAD OF FINANCIAL SERVICE AUTHORITY INVESTIGATION AND SETTLEMENT TEAM, UK." <johnson_william62@yahoo.com.hk>
Reply-To: dr.richandcollous@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 07:10:17 -0600
Subject: HEAD OF FINANCIAL SERVICE AUTHORITY INVESTIGATION AND SETTLEMENT
TEAM, UK.

--
HEAD OF FINANCIAL SERVICE AUTHORITY INVESTIGATION AND SETTLEMENT TEAM,
UK.
CONFIDENTIAL COURIER PAYMENT
+447011120798
RE: File Number: FSAIST/L-UK/US/0024/13.

Attn

Sorry that I am contacting you this late. It is because we have been
making arrangements for you to receive your outstanding fund through our
Reserve bank of
South Africa by electronic transfer since you reside in South Africa.
This
has now resulted in bringing the USA and British Government into the case
and we really want you to explain to us what you know about this
transfer/payment.

This body was set up to discover an outstanding unpaid fund being
owned to
Governments or Individuals all over the world through Contract Payment,
Inheritance and Lottery Winning Prize Awards beneficiaries as not been
paid to the scammers victims compensations payments all over
in South African. All participants/beneficiaries were selected randomly
from World Wide Web site through computer draw system and extracted from
over 100,000
companies Your email address and name emerged as a beneficiary of this
humanitarian gesture in the exercise hence this notification.

It may interest you to know that we have successfully concluded
arrangements with Reserve bank of South Africa to pay you via electronic
transfer to your
designated bank account. This arrangement was made for easy transfer of
your fund to your bank account over there in South Africa.

We have already moved your payment file to the appropriate department of
Reserve bank of South Africa and they will contact you as soon as you
indicate your
readiness for the transfer.

Perhaps, We are going to send your contract part payment Sum of $7.3M
Million to you through our Reserve bank of South Africa by electronic
transfer we have secured every needed document to cover this fund
Note:All
you need to do now is to send to us Your country of origin and country of
residence/work, complete official names, address where your wish contact
telephone, Sex and Age, Occupation

You are hereby advised to confirm your readiness to receive your fund via
Reserve bank of South Africa, so that we shall inform them to contact you
for
the transfer.you can send me email on my private
:dr.richand_colliouis2012@yahoo.com.hk

We await your urgent response.

Regards,

REV. Richard Collins .
HEAD OF FINANCIAL SERVICE AUTHORITY INVESTIGATION AND SETTLEMENT TEAM,
UK.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam