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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: Bank Of America <vicente.lopez@barcelonamedia.org>
Date: Sun, 29 Mar 2015 22:32:03 -0700
Subject: Account Verification

 


 

Dear Valued Customer

As part of our security measures, we regularly screen activity in the Bank of America Online Banking system. We recently contacted you after noticing an issue on your account . We requested information from you for the following reason:

Our system requires further account verification.

To restore your account, Sign in to Online Banking

Please Note: If we do no receive the appropriate account verification within 48 hours, then we will assume this Bank account is fraudulent and will be suspended. The purpose of this verification is to ensure that your bank account has not been fraudulently used and to combat the fraud from our community.

Don't reply directly to this automatically-generated e-mail message.  

Sincerely, 

Online Banking Team

 

Bank of America, Member FDIC.
© 2015 Bank of America Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Anti-fraud resources: