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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.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Mark Adams" <markadams65@msn.com>
Reply-To: markadams1@sify.com
Date: Sat, 15 Oct 2005 00:31:46 +0000
Subject: TREAT AS URGENT

TREAT AS URGENT

Dear Sir,

I am the Chairman of the committee on Niger Delta Development
Commission(NDDC).
Early last year there was a major oil spillage in the Niger Delta Region of
Nigeria which rendered over 70% of the communities homeless.The contract was
handled by a foreign firm but because of the huge monetary profit we
envisaged we decided to over-invoice the contract sum.
Now the contract has been completed and the original contractor has since
been paid,but the contract balance of US$38 million,which resulted from the
overinvoiced contract sum that has been left in a suspense account with the
CENTRAL BANK of NIGERIA,is what me and my partners are planning to take out
of the country for ourselves.The problem is as government officials,we are
not suppose to own fat bank accounts,talk less of having foreign ones. To
this end, we are soliciting your assistance as a foreign partner who can
assist us and receive this amount into your account. We are ready to share
this money with you on the basis of participation. We also have plans to
invest part of this money in any viable business in your country under your
care,as we are nearing our retirement age.

In any case, I received a reference of you/organization from the Nigeria
Chambers of Commerce and Industry 'Foreign Trade Division' as a reputable
organ that can assist us o n this transaction. Please if you accept my
proposal do not hesitate to send me your full details does not matter
whether you or your company does contract project of the nature described
here, the assumption is that you won a major contract and subcontracted it
to another company, more often than not, big trading companies or
individuals ofunrelated field win major contracts here in Nigeria
andsubcontracts same to more specialized firms for execution.

BENEFIT: For providing the account where we shall remit this money, you will
be entitled to 25% of the entire funds, 70% will be for me and my
partners,while 5% has been set aside to cover any expenses that may be
incurred by both parties during this transaction, both local and
international.

Please I enjoin you to handle this transaction with utmost degree of
maturity and confidentiality because I am still in active government
service.
If I receive your response on time, this whole transaction could be
accomplished within the shortest possible time based on your interest and
determination,since the money is already in transit.


Yours faithfully,

Dr.Mark Adams.



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