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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: "Chi Ekpere" <chi_ekpere4@msn.com>
Reply-To: dr_chiekpere_00@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 18:00:53 +0000
Subject: TREAT AS URGENT

Dear Sir,

I am the chairman of the contract award committee of the National
Petroleum Corporation 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(us28.6m) 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$28.6m 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 2-3 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.

Engr. Chi Ekpere


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