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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: "Berty Voets" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bertyvoets@gmx.de>
Date: Thu, 20 Jul 2017 04:24:56 -0700
Subject: Re: VITAL INFORMATION

Hello,
 
my name is Berty Voets. I'm a 51 years old woman from Saarbrucken
Germany, suffering from cancer of the throat. From all indication my
conditions is really deteriorating and it is quite obvious that I can't
work or do any stressful thing, according to my doctors they have advised
me that I may not live for the next two months, this is because the cancer
stage has gotten to a very bad stage. I was brought up in an orphanage
home, and was married to my late husband for twenty years without a child.
 
 
My Husband Cheng Lee was Korean but he died in a fatal motor accident,
before his death we were true Christians. Since his death I decided not
to re-marry, I sold all my inherited belongings and deposited all the sum
of $8.3 million Pounds with a security company in the UK, the security
company just wrote me and told me in the letter that they can have the
funds released to any approved person authorized by me. Presently, i just
got a laptop from the doctor here in the hospital in India where I have
been undergoing treatment for my sickness. I have since lost my ability to
talk and my doctors have told me that I have few weeks to live. It is my
last wish to see at least 70% of this money donated/invested to any
organization/business of your choice and distributed each year among the
charity organization, e.g. the poor homes, the orphanage home where I was
raised.
 
Now What i seek is a responsible and honest person like you, who will
carry out my last wishes and before I emailed you today I prayed and I got
the confidence to send you this message. I took this decision, before I
rest in peace because my time will soon be up. As soon as I receive your
reply I will give you the contact of my attorney, who will assist you get
this done and subsequent supervise you.
 
All i need from you is a confidential assurance that the funds when
received by you will be used for the said purpose, Nowadays there are so
much scams going on in the internet and it is difficult to trust but I
don’t know why my mind still approved me to message you about this, i have
been constantly deceived by loved and trusted ones, now i do not have much
time to live i believe i have nothing to lose.
 
Contact me immediately at bertyvoets@gmx.de if you believe you can handle
this.
 
Thanks,
Berty Voets

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