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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: "Rev.Carlos Santos" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <carlossmchael12@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2022 23:57:25 -0800
Subject: RE: Approved Reconciliation Payment

CONFIDENTIAL

RE: Approved Reconciliation Payment

I hope this email meets you well, sound and healthy.

I write to inform you that I have personally endorsed a reconciliation
payment of $5,575,000 USD (114.22 BTC) in your favor for immediate
remittance.

Approval Details
IMF Approval No: 44587P/2021
Reference No: 1HE45643CP530154A
Secret Code No: XXCN015X

I have over the weeks studied the circumstances surrounding the
reasons why your approved overdue payment has not been fulfilled and
must be honest to you, I was perplexed at the decision of the reserved
bank to seize and confiscate your fund despite the series of fund
release payments you've made over the years to get your approved fund
released to you. It is true that there were minor flaws in the manner
at which the initial approvals for this payment were obtained, but you
deserved consideration; at least for the efforts you put in getting
your payment by complying to the directives of the concerned
authorities.

To be honest, your chance of receiving this fund is at most 1%
considering various government and central banks policies and fund
movement regulations. You can only receive this approved fund through
digital currency, i.e. cryptocurrency based platform that is not under
central banks control.

The good news is that I took it upon myself to discreetly endorse this
reconciliation payment. Your payment advice with REF:
1HE45643CP530154A has been prepared in the crypto base for your BTC
payment. I have already forwarded your payment mandate to the
Remittance Director in charge with stringent instructions to
facilitate this transfer swiftly and with utmost confidentiality.

Do let me know if this is a welcomed development by you then I will
disclose to you the contacts of the financial institution, so that you
can contact the Remittance Director himself, otherwise I will have to
revoke the payment mandate with immediate effect.

Rev.Carlos Santos
IMF Financial Consultant
Brussels, Belgium

Anti-fraud resources: