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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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: mariam_aba33@zipmail.com.br
Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2005 17:32:39 -0800
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?MY=20ENTIRE=20FAMILY=20NEED=20YOUR=20HELP=20=21=21=20?=

Attention:Your Concern

My Dear Friend,
I am Dr. Mrs. Mariam Abacha, wife to the late Nigerian Head of state, General
Sani Abacha who died on the 8th of June 1998 while still on active service
for our Country. I am contacting you with the hope that you will be of great
assistance to me, I currently have within my reach the sum of 24 million
U.S dollars cash which I intend to use for investment purposes outside Nigeria.

This money came as a result of a payback contract deal between my husband
and a Russian firm inour country's multi-billion dollar Ajaokuta steel plant.
The Russian partners returned my husbands share being the above sum after
his death. Presently, the new civilian Government has intensified their
probe into my husbands financial resources which has led to the freezing
of all our accounts, local and foreign, the revoking of all our business
licences and the arrest of my First son. In view of this I acted very fast
to withdraw this money from one of our finance houses before it was closed
down.

I have deposited the money in a security company with the help of very loyal
officials of my late husband. No record is known about this fund by the
government because there is no documentation showing that we received such
funds. Due to the current situation in the country and government attitude
to my family, I cannot make use of this money within, thus I seek your help
in transferring this funds out of the sub-African region. Bearing in mind
that you may assist me, l have decided to part with 20% of the total sum.
Please kindly reply to (
mariam_aba33@fastermail.com),inclcude your personal telephone and fax numbers.
Your urgent response is needed.
Regards,

Dr. Mrs.Mariam Abacha

http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2000/27/swiss.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/909972.stm





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