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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: hencool@terra.com.mx
Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 08:51:22 +0000
Subject: VERY URGENT AND CONFIDENCAIL

Courtesy of Business opportunity, I take liberty anchored on strong desire
to solicit for your assistance on this mutual beneficial and risk free transaction
with you, which I hope you give urgent attention. To be precise, I am Mr.
Henry Cool the Manager of Bills/Exchange at the Foreign Exchange/Remittance
Department here in my country Ivory Coast. In my department, we discovered
an abandoned sum of US$13,000,000.00 (Thirteen Million United States Dollars)
in an account that belongs to one of our customers who died along with his
entire family in 1988 Lockerbie Pan American Airline plane crash.



Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next
of Kin to come over and claim his money, because we can not release it unless
somebody applied for its next of Kin or Relation to the deceased as indicated
in our banking procedure, but unfortunately to no avail, and nobody has
come forward to claim the money (because the mentioned next of kin which
is Son died as well).



Therefore, upon this discovery I and other two officials in my department
now decide to establish a cordial business relationship with you, hence
my contacting you. We want you to purportedly present your good self as
the next of Kin or relation of the deceased so that we can prepare documentations
and release the funds (US$13 Million) into your account for safety and subsequent
disbursement since nobody is coming for it and again we do not want the
funds to go into the Governments account as "Unclaimed Bill".



The banking law and procedures herein stipulates that any account abandoned
or dormant for a period of some years is subjected to be closed and all
money contained therein will be forfeited to the Government Treasury Account.
Now it is being speculated that the above sum will be transferred into Government
Treasury Account as unclaimed funds on or before June 2005. The reason for
you to present your good self as the next of kin in occasioned by the fact
that the deceased customer was a foreigner.



Mode of sharing after the successful completion of the transfer is as follows,
for the role you will be expected to play in the whole exercise, we have
agreed to give you twenty five (25%) of the total sum, and 5% has been set
aside for expenses we are going to encounter by both parties in the process
of this transaction and the remaining 70% shall be for my colleagues and
I. In support of the aforementioned, you are urged to reply this letter
indicating your readiness and interest to participate in the business. After
you reply, you will be advised on the next step forward.



I quite believe that you will protect our interest by keeping this business
Top Secret and Confidential, as your interest will be equally protected
in order to achieve and maintain maximum confidentiality. Trust to hear
from you on the above email: as I count on your earliest response.



Yours truly,

Mr.Herny Cool


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