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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: "Mrs Tinabello" <mrs_tinabello@msn.com>
Reply-To: mrs_tinabello11@excite.com
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2005 09:14:54 +0000
Subject: Urgent Greeting,

Dear Friend,

I greet you in the name of our lord . My name is Mrs Tina Bello . I am
a widow and a mother of Two all girls. I know you will see my letter to
you as an embarrassment considering the fact that we do not know
ourselves.

I plead with you to be patient with me I feel very pleased to contact
you for some assistance and business relationship.
I live in Nigeria with my children. My late husband was a loving,
caring and hardworking businessman who died unfortunately In a ghastly
auto crash. Before the sudden death of my beloved husband, and father
of my daughters, my late husband intended to establish a business in
the united states of America with the sum of$30 million united states
dollars but unfortunately he died before this proposed venture.
Following his death, his family members insisted that I am not
entitled to his property (Assets and money) since I am a woman and my
offspring's all girls as I do not have a male child for my husband. Well,
according to some barbaric traditional laws here in Nigeria (Africa) which
doesn't permit a woman
to inherit a man's property, as they are expected by tradition to take
over the management of his business and other properties including
myself who automatically becomes a wife to one of his immediate
brothers. Unfortunately to this wicked family members, the $30million
united states dollars which my late husband intended to use in
establishing a business in the United States was deposited in a bank account
unknown
to his family .

I and the lawyer is the only one aware of this money, so I have
discussed this matter with a staff of the bank that i want this money
personally so that I will be able to take care of my children's
educational needs since my husband's family members vehemently opposed
the furtherance of their education.

According to the staff of the bank, the best way to secure this money
is to transfer this money to a bank account outside Nigeria For
safe-keeping, later it will be used for business establishment subject
to the Advise of whosoever finally assists us. At this juncture, I
there fore ask for your sincere assistance in providing us with your
bank details and the enablement to facilitate the remittance of this
fund into your nominated account. As soon as I get your positive response, I
shall
provide you with all the necessary detail for this transfer. However, I
have decided to give you 20% of the total money as a reward for your
sincere assistance and the remaining 65% of the money will be for my
investment as I will want to keep aglow my late husbands dream of
investing in real estate.

To be able to help me, kindly send through my email, your personal
details including your contact information for easy communication.
Thanking you for your anticipated response
Mrs Tina Bello


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