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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:

Fraud email example:

From: Mohammed Balarabe <michaelabutu71@gmail.com>
Reply-To: balarabemohammed25@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2021 22:20:46 +0100
Subject: Business Proposal /Next of Kin.

Dear Sir/Madam,

My Name is Mr. Mohammed Balarabe. I am the Operation Manager in (Fidelity
Bank Nigeria Plc). One of our customers, late Mr. Hassan Karam Jameel, is
an oil contractor from Syria made a fixed deposit of US$18 million in our
bank on January 26th 2011, and the bank has not heard from him since the
maturity of the deposited fund. The Bank has made several efforts to locate
him but know avail. Recently I found out that Mr. Hassan Karam Jameel, died
with his entire family in the Syria War leaving behind no Next of Kin to
the deposit fund.

Therefore I am contacting you to present you as the Next of Kin/Beneficiary
to claim the abandoned fund sum of US$18 million. As an officer in the bank
I cannot be directly connected to this fund, thus I am compelled to request
for your assistance to claim this fund from the bank for investment
purposes in your company or country. I agree to go into partnership
investment with you, owing to your wealth of experience once the fund gets
to your account. I do need to stress that there is practically no risk
involved in this, it's going to be a bank to bank transfer.

All I need from you is trust and honesty to stand as the Next of
Kin/Beneficiary of the sum of US$18 million, for the bank to release the
fund to you. The bank will release the fund to any foreigner who has the
correct information regarding the deposited fund, which I will give to you
if you are willing and interested to work with me in this transaction.

I will be waiting for your reply urgently.

Best Regards,

Mohammed Balarabe.

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