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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: "Dr. Drik Van." <vdr.drik@yahoo.com> (may be fake)
Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 01:09:17 +0600 (BDT)
Subject: Urgent Attention????




Dear Sir/Madam,

Greetings from Dr. Drik Van, please do not be perplexed with this note.
The letter is not intended to cause you any embarrassment in whatever form
(hence not an unsolicited mail), but to rather contact your esteemed
dignified personnel after following your knowledge of high repute and
trustworthiness. I will first introduce myself as Dr. Drik Van, a staff in
the audit section of a well-known bank, Alpha Bank here in London,
England.


One of our accounts, with holding balance of £26,000,000 (Twenty Six
Million Pounds Sterling) has been dormant and last operated three years
ago. From my investigations and confirmation, the owner of the said
account, a foreigner by name John Shumejda died on the 4th of January 2002
in a plane crash in Birmingham; you can view this CNN
website:(http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/01/04/england.plane/)
for details on the crash. Since then, nobody has done anything as regards
the claiming of this money, as he has no family member that has any
knowledge as to the existence of either the account or the funds; and also
information from the National Immigration also states that he was single
on entry into the UK.

After detailed investigations on the deceased and his account, I found out
there is no mention of any heirs or family member on the account document
in the Bank records, therefore the money was lodged secretly into the
account.Plans are to transfer the fund out with you sincerely help.This
transaction is totally free of risk and troubles free as the fund is
legitimate and does not originate from drug, money laundry, terrorism or
any other illegal act. On your interest,

let me hear from you urgently My private e-mail
address:vdr.drik@yahoo.com

PHONE:+44 70457 87339
FAX : +44-(0)177-611-4947

Warm Regards,
Dr. Drik Van.





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