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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.

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Fraud email example:

From: "John white" <jwhitep_2005@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: jwhitep@myway.com
Date: Fri, 04 Nov 2005 13:28:54 -0500
Subject: for your urgent attention

Dear Sir:

My Name is John White, I am serving in Iraq, I will
disclose/proof my identity to you when it is safe to
do so.

I have to urgently evacuate some money, totaling
US$18,800,000 (eighteen million, eight hundred
thousand US dollars) clean legal notes, and all in
US$100 bills out of here to a safe country having
found a secure way to do so.

SOURCE OF MONEY:
Some money in various currencies were discovered
concealed in large boxes and barrels with piles
of weapons and ammunitions at a location near one
of Saddam’s old palaces during a rescue operation
several months ago, and it was agreed by the few of us
present that the money be shared amongst us, this was
an illegal thing to do though, but I tell you what?
no compensation can make up for the risks we are taking
with our lives in this hell hole.

The above figure was given to me as my share, and for
several reasons, concealing this volume of cash here
has been a big problem/source of distraction to me, I
however found a temporary solution with the help of a
UN contact working here, whose office enjoys some
immunity, and was able to get the package to a
safe location entirely out of trouble spot, where they
have been for the past 8 months.

She does not know the real contents of the packages,
and must not know, but believes that they belong to
an Asian American who died in an air raid, and before
giving up, trusted me to hand them over to his
business associate in Europe.

I have now found a secure way of getting the package
out of Iraq, and request for your assistance to work
with me to complete this. I am ready to give you
US$4M for the role you will play in this, but should
you have reasons to reject this offer, please destroy
this mail as any leakage will be too bad for us.

I will continue with more details as soon as you let
me know your position. But we have to take this up as
soon as possible for reasons I will explain when I
hear from you.

Please respond through my email.

Sincerely,

John White


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