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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: "Victor Martins" <victor_marthins16@msn.com>
Reply-To: victor_mathins@she.com
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 18:37:01 +0000
Subject: Dear Friend

FROM THE DESK OF:
DR.VICTOR MARTHINS
HEAD OF TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
UNION BANK (NIG) PLC.
LAGOS, NIGERIA
EMAIL: victor_mathins@she.com

Dear Friend,

My name is Dr.Victor Marthins, the Head of Treasury Department with the
Union Bank of (Nig)Plc, headquarters, Marina, Lagos Nigeria.

It is with belief and trust that my colleague and I are contacting you with
the aim of seeking yourconsent/authority to officially present you to my
bank as the assumed Next of Kin/relative to our late customer, Mr. Morris
Thompson who died few years ago (January 31, 2000) along with his entire
family in a plane crash on board Alaska Airlines Flight 261, alongside other
87 passengers. Please view the website for more information of this
incident:

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list

http://www.nativefederation.org/history/people/mThompson.html.

However, this was a sad news to the hearing of any human being and since
then my bank has made several enquiries to your Embassy here to locate any
family members or extended relatives of our late customer, but all efforts
proved abortive. And after these several unsuccessful attempts, my colleague
who is the Personal Account Officer (PAO) and I decided to trace his
relatives via the Internet with the use of his last name and yet, there is
no such trace and that is where and how we came across your information.
Hence, our decision to contact you based on your reputation as ascertain
from your profile via the Internet.

The late Mr. Morris Thompson has many landed properties here and he made a
fixed deposit of US$10,500,000.00 (Ten Million, Five Hundred Thousand United
States Dollar's Only) with our bank before his untimely death and
unfortunately, he has no other person nominated as his Next of Kin to our
bank, apart from his wife who died in the same incident; and in the case of
transaction of this nature, a final notice of fourteen (14) bank working
days is announced for the claim of the fund either by the deceassed Next of
Kin or Trustee and if after this notice, nobody come forward for the claim,
the said fund will be reverted to the government account/treasury as
unclaimed fund in accordance to the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
as enshrine in the 1979 constitution.

The fourteen (14) days final notice expired as at Friday (28/12/05) last
week and yet, nobody come forward for the claim of this said fund and we
have also been unsuccessful in locating any his family members for over four
(4) years now, hence our decision to seek your consent to present you as the
assumed Next of Kin to the late Mr. Morris Thompson to enable us claim this
fund on your name based on the paper works that will be perfected/secured by
an attorney, most importantly to avoid this fund from being reverted to the
government account.

This said fund will be claimed on your name and transferred to your bank
account for safekeeping and sharing between us based on the following
sharing modalities, which we have considerably drawn, 40% as your
compensation for whatever assistance/role you will play in this regard, 55%
for us and the remaining 5% has been mapped out for settlement of any
expenses that we may likely incurred in the pursuit of this claim, including
taxes that maybe required by your government upon the transfer to your bank
account.

We shall hire the services of an attorney who will secure all the necessary
legal papers from the concerned authorities for your declaration as the
rightful Next of Kin. The attorney shall play a role of your local
representative since we will not be directly involved or monior the
transaction for security reasons; and what we need is your honest/trust and
maximum co-operation to enable us achieve this goal. We assure you that this
transaction shall be executed under a legitimate arrangement that
willprotect you from any breach of the law.

Please get back to us via my private email address as stated above upon the
receipt of this mail and do not hesitate to ask your questions where it is
necessary for further clarifications.

Kindest regards,

VICTOR MARTHINS


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