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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: "RICHARD COOK" <richard_cook11@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 06 Feb 2006 18:01:05 +0100
Subject: PLEASE GET BACK TO ME

Richard Cook,
Unity Trust Bank
Third Floor/Congress House/23
Great Russell St, Soho,
London, WC1B 3UB

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am Richard Cook, The Head of Operations Unity Trust Bank I am writing
following an oppurtunity in my office that will be of imense benefit to both
of us.

In my Bank we discovered an abandoned sum of 3.5m.pounds in an account that
belongs to one of our foreign customers Late Larry Baldridge Jr an American
who unfortunately lost his life in the 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 website.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of
kin or relatves to come over and claim his money because the Bank cannot
release the funds unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation
to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.

Unfortunately I learnt that his supposed next of kin being his only daughter
died along with him in the plane crash leaving nobody with the knowledge of
this fund behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I
and two other officials in this department now decided to do business with
you and release the money to you as the next of kin or beneficiary of the
funds for safety keeping and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming
for it and we don’! t want this money to go back into Government treasury
as unclaimed bill.

We agreed that 40% of this money will be for you as foreign partner, while
the ballance will be for me and my colleagues. I will visit your country for
the disbursement according to the percentages indicated above once this
money gets into your account. Please be honest to me and trust is our
watchword in this transaction.

Note this transaction is confidential and risk free. As soon as you
receive this mail you should contact me by return mail whether or not you
are willing to enter into this deal. In the event you are not interested, I
sincerely ask that you disregard this email and tell no one about it. I am
very careful on truncating my banking career should you mention this to
someone else. I hope you can be trusted in this regard.

Please note that all necessary arrangement for the smooth release of these
funds to you has been finalised. We will discuss much in details when I do
receive your response.
Please in your response include the following information.

{1}Your full name and address
{1}Your telephone number and fax number
{3} Your business name and Occupation.

PLEASE REPLY THROUGH MY ALTERNATIVE EMAIL:richard_cook27@yahoo.co.uk

Best regards
Richard Cook


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