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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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Fraud email example:

From: "Baba Konate." <baba_konate@accountant.co.za> (may be fake)
Reply-To: baba_konate20042000@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2004 16:26:58 +0000
Subject: RE; Fund Management.

I am Ms Joyce Chen, a Chinese Native, from Taipei, Taiwan and I am an Executive Accountant with Citibank NA Taipei. First and foremost, I apologize using this medium to reach you for a transaction/business of this magnitude, but this is due to confidentiality and prompt access reposed on this medium.

I have decided to seek a confidential co-operation with you in the execution of the deal described hereunder for the benefit of all parties and hope you will keep it as a top secret because of the nature of this transaction.

Within the International Remittance Department where I work as an Executive Accountant and with the cooperation of four other top officials, we have in our possession as overdue payment bills totaling Twenty - Eight Million, Five Hundred Thousand U. S. Dollars ($28,500,000.) which we want to transfer abroad with the assistance and cooperation of a foreign company/individual to receive the said fund on our behalf or a reliable foreign non-company account to receive such funds. More so, we are handicapped in the circumstances, as the Citibank NA Taipei Civil Service Code of Conduct does not allow us to operate offshore account hence your importance in the whole transaction.

Anyway, we had a foreign client Frederick M. Wong and his wife Lilla C. Wong, of Redwood City, California who was on board the ill fated Egypt air flight 990 which crashed 31 October 1999. He deposited a huge sum of amount, US$28.5million (Twenty Eight Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) with our bank.

Unfortunately, this client was among the victims of EGYPTAIR FLIGHT NO.990 that crashed on the 31-10-1999 in U.S.A. Confirmable from the below website
<http://www.cnn.com/us/9911/02/egyptair990.list/index.html> or
www.greatdreams.com/plane990.htm <http://www.greatdreams.com/plane990.htm>
but, since then we have not had anybody to come for the claims as the next of kin. A situation I have monitored closely with my position in the bank.
Now, having monitored this deposit and managed it over the years before his death, and hence nobody has showed up as the next of kin for the past two years plus, I have removed the file to my "private vault".
I now solicit for your assistance to present you as the next of kin as every other arrangement has being concluded by me and I am only waiting for a foreigner to enable me move the funds to his account. This does not have any risk attached to it as all the internal documentations would be handled by me and every loop holes sealed off.

I have the authority of my partners involved to propose that should you be willing to assist us in the transaction, your share of the sum will be a compensating %. The business itself is 100% safe, on your part provided you treat it with utmost secrecy and confidentiality. Also your area of specialization is not a hindrance to the successful execution of this transaction. I have reposed my confidence in you and hope that you will not disappoint me.

Endeavor to contact me immediately my e-mail address whether or not you are interested in this deal. If you are not, it will enable me scout for another foreign partner to carry out this deal I want to assure you that my partners and myself are in a position to make the payment of this claim possible provided you can give us a very strong assurance and guarantee that our share will be secured and please remember to treat this matter as very confidential matter, because we will not comprehend with any form of exposure as we are still in active service and remember once again that time is of the essence in this business.

I wait in anticipation of your fullest co-operation.

Yours faithfully,
Joyce Chen



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