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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: "SHUAN LEE" <shuanlee_0@yahoo.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: shuanlee_05@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 19:49:44 +0100
Subject: BUSINESS PROPOSAL

Dear Sir/Madam,
I am Mr. Shuan Lee .Our company is an exporting company, but due to the much of governmental restrictions on individual trade and also the high rate of taxation on incoming and out going funds in the Chinese environment, We are soliciting the establishment of a business relationship with you such that our customers could be making payments through you and you will be remitting same to us via an account that will not disclose the money being proceeds of exports for which tax was evaded.
You will be entitled to 10% of every payment made through you. We have debtors to the tune of over $13,000,000.00 USD .We will be very glad if you can be our representative in your country and earn 10% of every payment made through you to us.
I await your readiness to proceed with instructing some of our debtors who are almost ready to make payments, to make those payments to us through you.
Yours Faithfully,
Shuan Lee


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