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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: "Mrs.Lillian Oritz" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrsoritz@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2017 11:28:12 +0200
Subject: PRESSING NEED

Greetings,

My name is Mrs Liilan Ortiz and i was married to Dr. Ernesto Ortiz from Puerto Rico. We owned a winery here in Cidra Puerto Rico until his tragic demise when Hurricane Maria struck our country on the 16th of September 2017. Hurricane Maria has changed my life forever because it took away my husband,home and nothing feels the same around here as i even had to travel over 6.0miles to be able to use the only working library with internet/telephone access. Before the death of my husband we had no kids only lived with our 2 dogs and things were pretty much beautiful over here but now all we are left with is uncertainty which brings to the purpose of my email.

We had a trust account with a ? Security Company in Richmond,USA with a substantial amount and i have opened up communication with the account manager on the possibility of receiving my inheritance and was informed that it's impossible for me to claim the inheritance because the Banks here in my country are un-operational now and will remain so for some time because everything here has to be re-built. The account officer advised me to find someone to act as my next of kin and receive the funds on my behalf. So going through my late husband's email dosier i found your address and decided to seek for your assistance in receiving the funds in your country and then arranging for me to travel over as i need to make re-settlement elsewhere. For this purpose i'm offering 30% of the total funds to you if you're willing to assist me recover the fund and help in my resettlement.

On your response i'll share more information and the process of receiving the funds. Also this will cost you nothing but your time. I know i'm sick and vulnerable now but will trust in humanity now because this is my last option.

Looking forward to your reply.

Best Regards,
Mrs Liilan Ortiz

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