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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: law office <olaw49@yahoo.pt>
Reply-To: law office <lawyerbileoma@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 16:13:46 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: urgent


Dear,
I'm Massihou Bileoma, Private lawyer to Late Michael,a national of your country, who used to work as the Director of petroliers total Benin on 27th of May 2010 my client and his family were involved in a car accident unfortunately lost their lives, my client had an account valued at about Nine Million Seven Hundred Thousand Dollars deposited in Bank here, Please send your email address and telephone number to my email:(lawyerbileoma@hotmail.com) so that I will send more details to you. Thanks,Massihou Bileoma

Anti-fraud resources: