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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: "CBN" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <cbn1888@indamail.hu>
Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2023 21:29:38 -0700
Subject: YOU HAVE BEEN COMPENSATED WITH $ 200,000.00 DOLLARS

NOTE: If you received this message in your SPAM/JUNK folder,
 
We hereby inform you that the Scotland Yard Police, Interpol, Federal Bureau of Investigation, (FBI) the United States of America, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria, and all the African Crimefighter leaders have come together to stop the scam/internet fraud in Nigeria and all-round Africa. We have recovered over US$9.6 Million Dollars from the people we have behind bars.
 
Our duty is to make sure we stop internet scams and money laundering. As for today, we have put a lot of fraudsters in jail. We go all over Africa to pick these thieves/internet rats. We have over 5,273 of them in our jails around Africa and we are still looking for more
It was agreed that to retain the good image of Nigeria and the rest of African countries, all the victims who lost his/her hard earn money to these faceless thieves will be compensated with just US$200,000.00. This we assume will help you to start a new life. Please, you have to accept the money like that because the people (victims) on our pay list are too much. We are paying back the money we recovered from these fraudsters.
 
You will be paid by the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Department of Treasury after we deliver the required paperwork to them.
 
If interested, kindly get back to me for more details:
I appreciate your good sympathy and collaboration, Hope to hear from you swiftly.
 
CONGRATULATIONS. 
DR GODWIN EMEFIELE
EXECUTIVE GOVERNOR
CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA

Anti-fraud resources: