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

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. Bruce V. Saun" <brsaun.n@admin.in.th>
Reply-To: brsaunn@admin.in.th
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 00:20:03 +1100
Subject: Let me hear from you

Dear Friend,

I am Mr. Bruce Van Saun, the group finance director of Royal Bank of
Scotland here in United Kingdom. There is this immigrant: Mr. Andreas
schranner, a property magnate who lived in London and happens to be one of
our very good client. He made a deposit of fund valued at £9,500,000.00
(Nine Million Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds sterling) with
our bank. Unfortunately, on the 25th of July 2000, Mr. Andreas schranner,
his wife Maria, their daughter Andréa eich, her husband Christian, and
their children Katharine and Maximilian all died in the air craft (France
concord plane crash) bound for New York in their plan for a world cruise,
do check this link to see the highlight of what I am explaining
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm). This sum of
£9,500,000.00 (Nine Million Five Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds
sterling) has been floating as unclaimed since the year 2000 in my bank as
all efforts to get across the relatives of our client who deposited the
money has hit the stones. I have decided to seek your assistance to have
you stand as his next of kin so that the said fund would be released in
your name as the next of kin and paid into your account. We shall share
this fund based on a clear and legitimate agreement with you and for the
role you are going to play in this transaction. Be informed that there is
no risk involved as all necessary legal documents which will be used to
back you up as the legal beneficiary and next of kin of my late client
will be procured by my lawyer.
I await your response for further details. Thanks for your understanding
and do have a nice day.
Sincerely,

Mr. Bruce Van Saun




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