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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: "Mr.Abu Zakaria" <mrabu887@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mrabuzakaria629@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 29 Nov 2021 12:20:19 +0100
Subject: Dear Friend (Assalamu Alaikum)

Dear Friend,

I am Mr.Abu Zakaria,from Burkina Faso in West Africa. I got your
e-mail contacts from computerized data's after my extensive search via
the website for a God-fearing and trust-worthy person to bestow this
transaction which is the only hope of our survival into his or her
hands.

I am The Manager of Auditing Department of Our Bank ,Ouagadougou
Burkina Faso. In my department we discovered an abandoned
USD$15,000,000,00 ( Fifteen Million United States Dollars). In an
account that belongs to this our foreign customer who died along with
his wife and children in the plane crash.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his
next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release
it unless somebody applies for it as the next of kin or relation to
the deceased, as indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately
we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside
with him in the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is
therefore upon this discovery that I decided to make this business
proposals to you and release the money to you as next of kin or
relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since
nobody is coming for it because I don't want this money to go into the
bank treasury as unclaimed Bill. I will give you more details on your
reply of this mail

Waiting to hear from you
Mr.Abu Zakaria

Anti-fraud resources: