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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: "Mr.Ben Horsford" <mr.ben_horsford@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 02:52:58 -0800
Subject: MY BEST REGARDS

Good Day To You,

I am Mr.Ben Horsford a Manager in one of ABSA BANK of South/Africa. I have
urgent and very confidential business proposition for you.I got your contact
from the world trade center (W.T.C.) regional office in here in South
Africa. In January 1999, an American Business consultant/contractor(
MR.MORRIS THOMPSON) made a numbered-time (fixed) deposit for twelve calendar
months valued at US$18,700,000.00 (Eighteen Million Seven hundred thousand
US Dollars)in a Domiciliary Account in my branch. Upon maturity, I sent a
routine notification of Account Status to his forwarding address but got no
reply.

After two months, we sent a reminder of same letter and finally we
discovered from his contact employers,Oil Alliance company,his Company's
branch in South Africa , that Mr. Morris Thompson died in a plane Crash of
Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January 31 2000, including his
wife and only daughter. You shall read more about the crash on visiting this
site. May There gentle soul rest in perfect peace,

http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/ and
http://www.nativefederation.org/history/people/mThompson.html

After further investigation, I found out that he did not leave a WILL and
all attempts to trace his Next-of-kin were fruitless. I therefore made
further investigation and discovered that MR. MORRIS
THOMPSON did not declare any Next-of-Kin in all his official documents,
including his Bank Deposit Papers.
This sum of US$18,700,000.00 is still floating in our Bank and the interest
is being rolled over with the principal sum at the end of each year. No one
would come forward to claim it. According to the South African Law, at the
expiration of 6 (Six) years,the money will revert to the ownership of the
South African Government if nobody applies to claim the funds.
Consequent upon the above, my proposal is that I would like you as a
foreigner to stand in as the Next-of-kin to the Late MR. MORRIS THOMPSON.

I will quickly work out the full documentation and transfer the US$18.7m
into your nominated account anywhere.You would be fully rewarded with the
25% of the total sum after when the money has been transferd to any of your
nominated bank account of your choice.
Send me your opinion to this request via email :ben_horsford@yahoo.com.ar

And I shall give you more details promptly.***KEEP ALL COMMUNICATION
SECRET****

Best Regards,

Mr.Ben Horsford.


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