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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
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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.

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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "million us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
  • "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
  • "lagos" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
• This email message is a next of kin scam.
• This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
  • allisonobi_1960@myway.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "allisonobi11960" <allisonobi11960@terra.com.mx>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 09:11:58 -0600
Subject: Dear


CITIZENS INTERNATIONAL BANK LTD.
LAGOS.NIGERIA
Dear Friend,
I am the Operations Officer, BILL AND EXCHANGE of THE
FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPARTMENT OF CITIZENS
INTERNATIONAL
BANK LTD.,LAGOS.NIGERIA.
I am writing to you, following the impressive
information about your profile through the Website,and
I believe in your capability and reliability
to champion this opportunity.
In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of
14million US dollars (Fourteen million US dollars)
in an account that belongs to one of our foreign
customers who died along with his entire family in
october6,2000 in a plane crash.
Since we got information about his death, we have been
expecting his next of Kin to come over and claim his
money because we can not release it unless some body
applies for it as next of Kin or relative to the
deceased as indicated in our banking and financial
policies but unfortunately we learnt that his supposed
next of kin or relation died with him in the accident
leaving nobody behind to claim the money.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I and other
officials in my department now decided to make this
business proposal to you and release the money to you
as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for
safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is
coming for it and we don’t want this money to go into
the Bank treasury as unclaimed bills.

The Banking law and guide line here stipulates that if
such money remained unclaimed after eight years, the
money will be transferred into the Bank
treasury as unclaimed fund.
The request for a foreigner as next of kin in this
business is occasioned by the fact that the customer
was a foreigner and an indigene cannot stand as next
of kin to the deceased family.
We agreed that 20% of this money will be for you as
foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a
foreign account, 5% will be set aside for expenses
incurred during this transaction and 75 % would be for
me and my colleagues.
Thereafter,I and my colleagues will visit your country
for disbursement according to the percentages
indicated.Therefore, to enhance the immediate transfer
of thisfund to you as arranged,you must apply first to
theBank as relation or next of kin of the deceased
indicating your private, telephone and fax number for
easy and effective communication and location where
the money will be remitted.
Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by
faxor e-mail the text of the application.I will not
fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is
hitch free and that you should not entertain any atom
of fear as all required arrangements have been made
for the transfer.
You should contact me on MY E-MAIL, as soon as you
receive this letter. I decided to contact you as you
have products of interest in your part of the world
where we can invest our own percentage to avoid
peoples awarenessas we are civil servants.
Note that we can conclude this operation within ten
banking days.Please keep this very confidential for
obvious security reasons.
Contact me for more information, all confirmable
before you apply if you want. Trusting to hear from
you shortly for a detailed information which are
confirmable before you can makeup your mind to
apply.If however,you are not interested,do let me know
by returm maill too as I will not contact anybody else
until I hear from you.
May God be with you.
Yours faithfully
allison Obi
please reply to allisonobi_1960@myway.com

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam