419 scam: "Mark Elliot"<info@bank.com> Good news, your payment compensation

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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:

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:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "money laundering" ("anti-terrorist", "anti-money laundering" or "drug-free" certificates are a common way for criminals in fake lottery scams and other Advance Fee scams to get you to send money to them. There are no such certificates in the real banking world. )
- "economic and financial crimes commission" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "(efcc)" (This name is often mentioned in money recovery scams (re-scam): the real EFCC does not contact victims to offer to get their money back because that is near impossible. )
- "abuja" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
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.
- +2349020382032 (Nigeria, prepaid mobile phone)

Fraud email example:

From: "Mark Elliot" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <un.compi2015@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Apr 2019 05:13:18 +0800
Subject: Good news, your payment compensation

UNITED NATIONS
House, 617/618. Diplomatic Zone,
Central Area District,
Federal Capital Territory,
Abuja, Nigeria
Telephone:- +234 902 038 2032

Dear Sir/Madam,

Compliments of the day,

We hereby inform you that the UNITED NATIONS in conjunction with the Interpol, Federal Bureau of Investigation, (FBI) United States of America, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria and all the African Crime fighter leaders have come together to inform the world what is going on now and we have recover over US$3.8 Billion Dollars from the people we have behind bars.

Our duties is to make sure we stop internet scam and money laundering. As for today we have put a lot of fraudsters in jail. We go all over Africa to pick this thieves/internet rats. We have over 8,273 of them in our jails round Africa and we are still looking for more. We are aware that a lot of foreigners out there have been deceived and lost their hard earn money to these fraudsters after promising them percentages in their letters/e-mails for their impending help to move funds out Africa including fake lottery winning notification and at the end of the day, they will collect thousands of dollars from you without a successful end.

It was agreed that to retain the good image of Africa countries, all the victims who lost his/her hard earn money to these faceless thieves will be compensated with just US$1,850,000.00 (One Million, Eight Hundred & Fifty thousands United Stated Dollars only). This we assume will help you to start a new life. Please, you have to accept the money like that because the people (victims) in our pay list are too much. We are paying back from the money we recovered from these fraudsters.

To that effect, we are sending you this e-mail because your contact details were given to us as one of the victims. Since the United Nations, Interpol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have stepped into this matter, be rest assured that you are safe as it is our duty to protect and serve the citizens of United Kingdom and United States of America in particular and the rest of the world in general.

TO FILE FOR YOUR CLAIM, PLEASE, FILL THE REQUIRED INFORMATION AS STATED BELOW AND SEND IT BACK TO US IMMEDIATELY. ALL MATTERS RELATING TO THE IMMEDIATE RELEASE OF YOUR COMPENSATION FUND HAS BEEN REGULARIZED AND FINAL APPROVALS WILL BE ISSUE OUT AS SOON AS WE HEAR FROM YOU.

1. YOUR FULL NAME
2. YOUR AGE
3. SEX:
4. HOUSE OR OFFICE ADDRESS (P.O BOX NOT ACCEPTABLE),
5. OCCUPATION
6. YOUR PHONE NUMBER(S)
7. COUNTRY:

Immediately you send the above required information to us, we will proceed with the Processing/Releasing of your payment to you within 2-3 working days based on our agreement.

We are aware that these fraudsters has broken a lot of home(s), made a lot of people to lose their job, sell their properties, closed their business, put many on the street, and made a lot to even lose their life. We are very sorry.

Please, feel free to call us with the phone number above if you need more clarification(s).

Best Regards,

Mark Elliot,
Head of Communications

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam