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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: "dr_okohn AKpan" <dr_okohn_akpan@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: dr_akpan37@yahoo.com.au
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2005 02:07:26 +0000
Subject: very urgent

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation,
Lagos-Nigeria

Attn Dear,

I am the Treasury Controller, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation [NNPC]
and a close associate of the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources.
The Minister has mandated me to transfer the sum of US$88millions
Recovered from over-invoiced contracts involving the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation [NNPC] into several private accounts in
Europe and United States. A total sum of US$68,000,000.00 has been
transferred before the Emergence of this present Civilian Administration,
leaving the balance of US$20,000,000.00.I have made proper
arrangement/documentation to transfer the balance which is retained in a
coded account of the NNPC with the Central Bank of Nigeria. We are
soliciting that you help us to receive the fund in trust.

We Cant complete this transaction smoothly without the participation of a
foreign partner who would provide an account where the funds could be
lodged. Since it is a contract payment, the funds must be remitted to a
foreign account. The remittance of the funds requires little
documentation.
There is no risk involved on your part in this transaction since the Former
Minister and I have covered this transaction with adequate contract and
external credit documents from the beginning.

What we require from you by e-mail are via:

{i} Acceptance letter of this offer
{ii} Your company name/Address and confidential
Telephone and fax numbers
{iii} Convincing Honesty, Trustworthiness and
Willingness to abide by the requirements of this proposal paramount of which
is CONFIDENTIALITY. We have agreed that you will retain 30% of the entire
US$20,000,00 0.00 for your effort in this transaction, 60% for us partners
here
in Nigeria and the remaining 10% will be used for defrayal of incidental
cost in the course of this transfer.

Please reply urgently by e-mail as we expect that the transaction will not
take more than ten working days. And please note that this transaction
must be top secret.

Best regards,

Dr Okohn Akpan.
(Treasury Controller NNPC).


Anti-fraud resources: