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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: "Dr.Idrissa Diop" <dridrissadiop04@yahoo.ca> (may be fake)
Reply-To: idrissadiop4@mixmail.com
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 09:01:27 +0000
Subject: REQUESTING YOUR URGENT PARTNERSHIP INVESTMENT

Dear Friend,

First, I must apologise to you
for using this medium to communicate
about this transaction, though it is
my great pleasure in writing you this
letter on behalf of my colleague and me.
I am Dr. Idrissa Diop, the
director of Bill and Exchange
at the foreign remittance
department in the bank where I work.
Permit me to inform you of my desire
of going into business relationship
with you. I got your contact from the
International web site directory.
I prayed over it and selected your
name among other names due to it's
esteeming nature and the recommendations
given to me as a reputable and trust
worthy person I can do business with
and by their recommendations I must not
hesitate to confide in you for this simple
and sincere business. My colleague and I
have decided to contact you on a business
transaction that will be very beneficial
to both of us at the end. I would be brief
and direct to ensure you understand
everything properly.

In my department we discovered an abandoned
sum of $13.7M USD (thirteen million, seven
hundred thousand US dollars), in an
account that belongs to one of our foreign
customers, an American by name: Mr. John
Schelpert who died along with his
wife and other passengers in Egypt
air flight 990 -October 31, 1999.
since we got information about his untimely
death, the fund has been dormant in his
account with my bank without any claim,
we have been expecting his next of kin
to come over and claim his money because
we cannot release it unless somebody
applies for it as next of kin or relation
to the deceased and the person must be a
foreigner as indicated in our banking guidelines.

Before our observation in this development,
we discovered that the owner of the account
died without an heir/will hence the money
is floating and if I do not remit this money
out urgently it will be forfeited for
nothing. The banking law and guideline here
stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after five years, the money
will be transferred into the bank treasury
account as unclaimed fund. It is therefore
upon this discovery that I and my junior
colleague in the bank now decided to make
this business proposal to you and release
the money to you as the next of kin or
relation to the deceased for safety and
subsequent disbursement since nobody is
coming for it and we do not want this money
to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.

Meanwhile the whole arrangement to put
claim over this fund as the bonafide next
of kin to the deceased and transfer this
money to a foreign account has been put
in place. Directives and needed information
will be relayed to you as soon as you
indicate your interest and willingness
to assist us and also benefit from this
great business opportunity. We could have
done this deal on our own,but because of
our position in this country operating a
local account would eventually raise an
eye brow on my side during the time of
transfer because I work in this bank.

This is the actual reason why it will
require foreigner as second party that
will forward claims as the next of kin to
the bank and also present a designated safe
foreign account where he will need the
money to be transferred into after due
verification and clarification by the bank.
May I at this point emphasize that this
transaction is a successful arrangement,
and as an insider of the bank I have the
capacity to monitor that everything is
smoothly perfected. On smooth conclusion
of this transaction, you will be entitled
to your own share of the total sum as
gratification. We have agreed that 20 %
of this money will be for you as our foreign
partner, in respect to the provision of a
foreign account, 5% will be set aside
for expenses incurred during the business
and 75% would be for me and my colleague.
There after I and my colleague will
visit your country for disbursement
according to the percentages indicated.

This share of yours is negotiable as long
as it is reasonable. Please, you have been
advised to keep this information a top
secret as we are still in service and intend
to retire from service after we conclude
this deal with you. I will be monitoring
the whole situation here in this bank until
you confirm the money in your account and
ask us to come down to your country for
subsequent sharing of the fund according
to percentages we shall agree upon.
All other necessary information will
be sent to you on your acceptance to
champion this transaction with us. I
suggest you get back to me as soon as
possible through my telephone number
00221 488 7164 or this email stating your
wish in this deal.

Thanks and best regards.

Yours faithfully,

Dr. Idrissa Diop
Direct Tel : 00221 488 7164


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