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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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "paul pedro" <uwam20@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 20:41:32 +0100
Subject: GREETINGS:

From the desk of:PAUL PEDRO.
Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)
Falomo, Ikoyi-Lagos, Nigeria

I am pleased to send my greetings to you. I know this letter will
definitely come to you as a surprise; I actually came about your
contact when I was browsing through the Internet searching for a
reliable, trustworthy and confidential partner who can transact this
business with us.

I am the chairman of the Contract Review/Audit Committee scrutinizing
all record covering executed contract awarded by previous military
government in Nigeria. My colleagues and I have uncovered a floating
amount of USD$10,500,000.00 (ten Million,Five Hundred Thousand United
States Dollars), without a clear beneficiary owing to a deliberate act
of overinvoicing and inflating of contract value by some past
government officials.

This money (USD$10.5M), has already been approved for payment by the
Federal Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and is secured
under Contract number MMPS/FGN/1233/MMPS-X29/98, Job Completion
Certificate No:6770024MMPS/C OF 17th Oct.1998.
As top civil servants, we are not authorized to operate foreign bank
account and this is why we want to use your bank account to transfer
this money outside Nigeria.

We have accepted you as our foreign partner and will now regularize
approvals to you as the trusted beneficiary of the contract sum. As
soon as we receive your acceptance, we shall inform you of the
necessary requirements from you to facilitate transfer.
We have resolved to give you 25% of the total sum as compensation for
your assistance, 70% is for me and my partners here in Nigeria, while,
5% is set aside to cover every expenses to be made in the course of the
transaction.

Note that this should be confidential. Send your urgent response
through mail,including

NAME OF THE BANK,
ADDRESS OF THE BANK,
SWIFT CODE OR ABN NUMBER,
ACCOUNT NUMBER,
ACCOUNT HOLDER'S NAME ADDRESS
YOUR PERSONAL PHONE AND FAX NUMBERS for easy communication on the
subject matter.

I am awaiting your immediate reply.
Thank you.
Yours truly,
PAUL PEDRO.


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