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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: "RICK ANDERSON" <rickanderson_sss1@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: rickanderson_s1@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 08 Nov 2006 03:17:36 +0100
Subject: Dear Friend

Good Day.
Greetings from London,
I wish to inform you that this letter is not a hoax mail and I urge you to
treat it serious. We want to transfer to overseas account ($30,000.000.00
USD) Thirty million United States Dollars) from a prime Bank here in London.

I want to ask you, If you are not capable to quietly look for a reliable and
honest person who will be capable and fit to provide eitheran existing bank
account or to set up a new Bank a/c immediately to receive this money, even
an empty a/c can serve to receive this money, as long as you will remain
honest to me till the end for this important business trusting in you and
believing in God that you will never let me down either now or in the
future.

I am Mr.Rick Anderson,presently promoted to Auditor General in one of the
banks here in London. During the course of our auditing last week, I
discovered a floating fund in an account opened in the bank in 1996 and
since 1998 nobody has operated on this account again, after going through
some old files in the records I discovered that the owner of the account
died without a[Heir/WILL]hence the money is floating and if I do not remit
this money out urgently it will be forfeited for nothing.

The owner of this account is Mr. Gorge Roland an American and a great
industrialist and a resident of Alaska State, who unfortunately lost his
life in the plane, crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on
January 31 1998, including his wife and only daughterleaving nobody to claim
the money .

No other person knows about this account or any thing concerning it, the
account has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to me as well
that the account is a secret account. The total amount involved is Thirty
million United States Dollars only [$30,000.000.00] and we wish to transfer
this money into a safe foreigners account abroad.

But I don't know any foreigner; I am only contacting you as a foreigner
because this money cannot be approved to a local person here, but to a
foreigner who has information about the account,which I shall give to you
upon your positive response.
I am revealing this to you with believe in God that you will never let me
down in this business,you are the first and the only person that I am
contacting for this business, so please reply urgently so that I will inform
you the next step to take urgently. I need your strong assurance that you
will never let us down, me and a key bank official who is deeply involved
with me in this business.

I guarantee you that this transaction will be executed under a legitimate
arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law The bank
official will destroy all documents of the transaction immediately you
receive this money leaving no trace to any place.

I will use my position and influence to obtain all legal approvals for
onward transfer of this money to your account with appropriate clearance
from the relevant ministries and foreign exchange departments. At the
conclusion of this business, you will be given 30% of the total amount, 70%
will be for us. please treat this proposal as top secret.
I look forward to your earliest reply,

Best Regards,
Rick Anderson.

_________________________________________________________________
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