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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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.

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "a security company " (this will cost you money - be careful with upfront payments to anyone you only know through email, especially if they promise you a lot of money. Never ever send money by Western Union or MoneyGram to people you do not know personally. )
  • "hundred thousand us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
• This email message is a next of kin scam.

Fraud email example:

From: "Madam Fatou Sankoh" <mfatou@fastwebmail.it>
Reply-To: fatouyear@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 20:07:30 +0200
Subject: From Madam Fatou Mbaye Sankoh.


From Madam Fatou Mbaye Sankoh.

Goodday,

I search out your email ID this morning through internet hoping to introduce
to you a future and long term business transaction. I am Madam Fatou Mbaye
Sankoh the wife of Mr Foday Saybana Sankoh who was the leader and founder of
the Sierra Leone rebel group Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in the
10-year-long Sierra Leone Civil War.

View this site for more details: http://www.sc-sl.org/ruf.html, view this
site for more details http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foday_Sankoh, I am
married to Mr Foday Saybana Sankoh for three(3) years without a child, My
husband was arrested by the UN Troops during the Sierra Leone and keep in
the UN hospital costudy where he detained.

While my husband was in the UN costudy he reveal to me that he deposited the
sum $10.5 (ten million And Five hundred thousand US dollars) in a Security
company which he wanted to use for his political affair after the war,
unfortunately he died in the UN costudy on 29 july, 2003. view this site for
more details http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/752746.stm.

I have contacted the security company where the money was deposited and the
company demanded for my late husband's foreign partner/associate as my
husband told them during the time he deposited the fund in their security
company. Presently, I am in a critical condition in the hospital, i had a
damaged kidney and my Doctor has confirmed that i have few days to live.

Please i am honorably seeking your assistance to be the foreign
partner/beneficiary of the money and to use it the way i will instructs you
if death permit me.

If it pleases you, Kindly send me your full contact informations, so that i
will submit it to the security company and introduce you as the rightful
foreign partner/beneficiary of the money. I will give you 20% for assisting
me and you will also assist me to invest the rest in the areas i will
instruct you later and to help the less privilege and orphans.

I want you to promise me that you will not betray me after the security
company might have released the fund to you as my late husband's foreign
partner.

Best regard.
Madam Fatou Mbaye Sankoh.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam