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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: "Magi Giwa" <magi_giwa222@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: mag_g225@yahoo.com
Date: Sat, 03 Dec 2005 03:35:42 +0000
Subject: HONEST ASSISTANCE

Dear Sir/Madam,
I send you this e-mail with all humility and every seriousness of heart;
believing that you will be the instrument God will use to help me and my two
daughters in this predicament due to the unfortunate death of my husband.
But I hope and so believe that you will lift off this burden from my
shoulder. I am Mrs. Margaret Olufunmilayo Giwa, wife of late Chief Micheal
Rufus Foluso Giwa, the erstwhile chairman/Managing Director of Unilever
Nigeria Plc.(formerly Lever Brothers Nigeria Limited) who died on Wednesday,
March 26, 2003 along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in a ghastly motor accident
while travelling to his home town in Ondo State.

My predicament started with the tradition of property-grabbing on my late
husband's properties by his family. What followed after was that I and my
children were asked to vacate my matrimonial home by my late husband's
brothers so that they can absorbed with all my late husband's properties a
month after his funeral, relying on tribal traditions (beliefs and custom of
their clan) just because I did not bear a male child for my husband before
his death whom they believed would have inherited his estates.

This suddenly destitute me as a widow and had to scrambled to get help from
a member of our Church who through her humane kindness, gave us (I and my
two daughters) an apartment to lay our heads in her house. As the
beneficiary next-of-kin to my late husband's "Domiciliary Account" (Dollar
Account) he was operating with the Union Bank of Nigeria Plc. before the
incident that led to his death, I was fortunate to have left the house with
all the vital documents relating to the account which had a closing balance
of $9,690,000.00 (Nine Million, Six Hundred and Ninety Thousand United
States Dollars).

When I visited the bank last week, the Branch Manager reliably informed me
that I can come for the claim of the funds at any point in time and when so
desired. The truth of the matter right now is that I cannot make use of this
funds here due to the forces surrounding me concerning my late husband's
family hence the reason why I am soliciting for your assistance to help me
and my children out of this situation before my late husband's brothers gets
to know where we are staying and equally seized the documents to this funds
from me.

All I need from you is your trust and honesty to assist me in this situation
by providing me your contact address and bank account details so that I can
immediately instruct the bank to have the funds transfered to your bank
account before any of my latehusband's brothers or family gets to know about
it.I strongly believe that the only way I can secure the funds for myself
and my children is to have the funds transfered overseas and after you must
have received and confirmed the funds in your account, I and my children
would then make appropriate travelling arrangement to come and meet with you
in your country.
I have mapped out and agreed that if you can help me in this matter, you
will retain 20% of the total funds, while 80% will be for me and my
children. For more information on the controversial exit of my husband, you
can get the full import of the story on This Day Newspapers, one of
Nigeria's dailies on Page 1 (front page) of Thursday, March 27th, 2003
edition at ThisDay's website: www.thisdayonline.com or any other Nigerian
newspaper or newsmagazine of the same date or thereafter.
I thank you most sincerely, for your time and your anticipated assistance
and I look forward to hearing from you soon. May Almighty God bless you!
yours Sincerely,
Mrs. Margaret Giwa


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