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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: "Mr. Jacob Achuks." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <venkataramansanjay@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 18 Sep 2020 13:37:23 +0200
Subject: Re: First reminder for your Overdue payment.

Re: First reminder for your Overdue payment.
Attention:
This letter is being written to inform you that your payment of $2.5m has been outstanding for the past months.
Your Outstanding Payment: $2.5m
Charges for late application: $25
Charges of interest: $150
Outstanding due: $175
We have negotiated with the Federal Ministry of Finance that your payment totaling $2,500.000.00 (Two Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) will be released to you. Now how would you like to receive your payment?
However, you must understand that it is a mandatory regulation for you as a beneficiary to follow this instructions in order to receive your payment within few banking working days. In case of any further doubts and queries you might be having regarding your payment we request you to kindly get in touch with us via email for more clarification. We hope this hasn’t been a great inconvenience for you. If it has, we’re sorry for the trouble caused. We hope there won’t be any further problems  and delays with respect to this issue.
Please regard this matter with the utmost urgency for urgent conclusion of your transaction.
Best regards,
Mr. Jacob Achuks.

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