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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "contact me immediately" (they are rushing you so you don't have time to think properly)
  • "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
• This email message is a next of kin scam.

Fraud email example:

From: "catherine swanson" <catherine_swanson1@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: mrscatherine5@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 17:28:22 +0000
Subject: Donald Sonn

AUDIT AND ACCOUNTS UNIT
MIDLAND BANK
LONDON, ENGLAND.

Dear Sonn,

I am Mrs.Catherine Swanson, a staff of bills and exchange at the Foreign
Remittance Department of Midland Bank London. In my department, we
discovered an abandoned sum of (US$8.5M) Eight Million, Five hundred,
thousand United States Dollars only, in an account that belongs to late
Mr.Donald Sonn who died in a ghastly car accident in 2004. Since we got
information about his death, the bank has been expecting his next of kin to
come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody
applies as a next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our
banking guidelines.

Unfortunately, we learnt that he did not name any beneficiary to his account
before his sudden death. It is therefore upon this discovery that the
attorney to the deceased and I now decided to contact you, and having the
same last name with him, makes it easier for the money to be released to you
since nobody is coming to make a claim for the money and we do not want this
funds to go into disbursement account as unclaimed bill. It is possible that
you may not have any direct relationship with him, but that will not change
any thing. The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money
remained unclaimed after three (3) years the money will be transferred into
the government account as unclaimed fund. We shall negotiate on the
percentage split of the funds as we proceed. Therefore to enable immediate
release of the inheritance to you as arranged, you should contact me
immediately via email for further directives on how to go about actualizing
the claim in your name.

I look forward to your immediate response.

Best regards

Mrs.Catherine Swanson.

N/B: I know that this email will come to you as a surprise, considering the
fact that it is unsolicited.
I quite understand your concern over this matter considering the happenings
all over the world, I want to assure you that this is a 100% legitimate and
risk free transaction.

_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam