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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: BARRISTER GREY BUTLER <vrussel907@gmail.com>
Reply-To: greybutler01@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2022 17:53:02 +0100
Subject: DEEM FIT

--
I am Bar. Grey Butler,an Attorney of law and a personal attorney to
Late Mr. Michael Harris an American who was an Immigrant here in the
UK and has an inheritance fund amounting to $15.5million based here in
the U.K, also referred to as my client. On the 25th of July 2000, my
client, his wife, and their two Children died in a Boeing Air France
Concorde plane crash bound for New York. They were on their way to a
world cruise.

Prior to that accident and since then, I have been trying to locate my
Late client's extended relatives and his next of kin but proved
abortive because he did not make any will prior to his death. I have
contacted you initially to assist me in repatriating this huge fund
before it will automatically revert back to her majesty's government
treasury and be declared unclaimed. However,the legal procedure to
activate this takes about three months,of which there are just about
two months left.

The bank has recently issued me a notice to provide details of any of
my late clients next of kin within a short period of time, this
thereby triggers off the procedure of reverting the funds to her
majesty's government treasury account. My Late client's inheritance is
valued at fifteen million, five hundred thousand U.S dollars ($15.5m).
Since I have been unsuccessful in locating any relatives of my late
client in the last twenty two years; and with the bank indicating that
they now wish to shortly start the procedure of reversion of the funds
to the state, I now seek your consent to present you as the next of
kin of the deceased, so that the proceeds of this amount can be paid
to you.

All I require is your honest co-operation and confidentiality to
enable us to seal this deal through. I guarantee that this will be
executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any
breach of the law. Please get back to me if you are interested in
assisting me to enable us to discuss further.

Regards,
BARRISTER GREY BUTLER.

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