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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: "ENG. ADAMS" <adiooms@yahoo.es> (may be fake)
Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2005 09:46:36 -0700
Subject: ACKNOWLEDGE

E-mail: adioomssm@yahoo.es

Dear Friend,

I am the chairman of the contract award committee of the petroluem and natural
resources ministry here in Nigeria, for security reasons, I may not wish to disclose
how I got your email address for now.

After due deliberation with my partner, I decided to forward to you this business
proposal, we want you to assist us receive the sum of Twenty eight million,
six hundred thousand united state bills (US$28.6m) into your account.

This fund resulted from an over-invoiced contract awarded by us under the budget
allocation to my ministry and the bill was approved for payment by the concerned
ministries. The contract was executed, commissioned and the contractor was paid his
actual cost of the contract. Now, we are left with the balance of US$28.6Million as
the over invoiced amount, which we have deliberately over estimated for our own use.
Please note that the law forbids civil servants to operate or own foreign accounts
hence this contact, we have agreed to share the money in the following percentages:
30 for you, 60 for us 10 for tax as may be required by your government.

Note that this transaction is very much free from all sorts of risk hence the
business was carefully planned before it was successfully executed and we the
officials involved in the deal have put many years in service to our ministry.
We have been exercising patience for this privilege for so long not until the
presidential announcement last week, that all foreign contractors owed be paid
forthwith, this will enable the presidency reconcile our debt ratio with the outside
world and to most of us, this is a lifetime blessing we cannot afford to miss.
Upon indication of your interest to fully co-operate with us,
a payment application/information form will be sent to you via email for completion.
Note that the following information: a) bankers name and address,
b) account number and account name and c) your private phone number and
email address will enable us seek/secure approval of the fund from the concerned
government quarters/ministries within 3-4 banking days.

As soon as we confirm receipt of this money in your nominated bank account,
my partner and I will come over to your country to arrange for our own share and
possibly invest part of this money in your country.

Let honesty and trust be our watchword throughout this transaction. I shall furnish
you with some details about myself.
Your prompt reply will be highly appreciated.

Best regards,

Eng. Dr. I. S. Adams


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