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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: Ranney Austin <rannaustinraney@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 27 Aug 2021 14:03:19 +0100
Subject: Reply Proposal

Lloyds Banking Group.
Alder Castle, 10 Noble St,
London EC2V 7ED,
United Kingdom.

ATTENTION,

Greetings to you, I am contacting you after going through your
interesting profile. I am Mr. Juan Colombas. I am from London, United
Kingdom, If this message successfully gets to you, I will like to
discuss business with you, which you will have an immense benefit from
if we can work together with, The Group Finance Director of Lloyds
Banking Group United Kingdom.

I am contacting you for a legitimate business transaction strictly for
you and me alone. I personally discovered a dormant account with a
total sum of £ 1,35,000.000.00 - [One-hundred Thirty-Five Million GBP
Only] here in our bank. The owner of this dormant account died on 4th
Jan 2012. Since his death, nobody has operated in his account because
the account has NO BENEFICIARY attached to it. I wish to present you
as the next of kin to the bank.

Kindly get back to me as soon as possible for more details on how to
proceed further. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,
Mr. Juan C.

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