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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: Midland Finance South Africa <midlandfinanceza@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 17:37:22 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Re: LOTTERY More Information Required.


Attention: Winner,

We write to inform you that we cannot confirm if you have won anything or not unless you provide us with the following information such that we could verify and ascertain that you are the true beneficiary winner of this lottery award

The information you are to provide are as follows:

1. Your Full Names:

2. Batch Numbers:

3 Reference Numbers:

4 Country of Origin:

5 Telephone & Fax Numbers:

6. Name of Lottery Organization.


Immediately We receive these information from you, I shall dispatch some of our officials to the lottery organization as well as the gamming board of South Africa to find out if you did win or not.

I wait to hear from you soon.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr.Jabulani Baloyi.



Anti-fraud resources: