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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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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: PRINCESS JANET AGWA <janetprincess@virgilio.it>
Reply-To: janetprincess_uk@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 10 Feb 2006 16:01:28 +0100 (GMT+01:00)
Subject: FROM PRINCESS JANET


Happy New Year.

This is a personal mail from me and it should be for
your eyes only, kindily discard it if you are not capable of handling
it with me.

I humble request for your assistance to invest the sum of
$15,000,000.00 (Fifteen Million United States Dollars) that will be
under your control in your country.

This amount will be transferred to
your personal account as soon as I receive your reply indicating your
interest and ability to handle this.

I will let you know the full
details of this immediately you indicate your interest and also the
necessary documents regarding the fund will be forwarded to you
immediately.

This is authentic and risk free our sharing ratio will
be subject to negotiation

Thank you.

Regards,

Janet Agwa

Anti-fraud resources: