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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: "Henry Shawn" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mega_lolo@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 20 Nov 2017 13:58:42 -0800
Subject: Your Last payment allocation

Hi
I am Henry Shawn of the United States official FBI Agent in Africa . I was
gifted with some cash and gold bars after saving the life of a wealthy
Sheikh at the sub-station where i am deployed in Africa.
 
I do not want my superior officers to know about this so they won't take
it away from me. I rather send it to someone i don't know on a mutual
agreement than let them seize and keep it for themselves and leave me with
nothing.
 
We shall discuss about investing the fund, probably in your area of
business or something lucrative either home or abroad. But you must keep
this correspondence to yourself because of my position . Kindly indicate
your interest in assisting me in this venture. I will send you more
details on how we proceed .
 
Kindly reply as soon as possible.
 
Best regards,
 
Henry Shawn

Anti-fraud resources: