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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: mahmoodu abdu <mahmoodu_abdu17@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:07:21 +0000
Subject: URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL.



Greeting to you,
I am DR MAHMOODU ABDU from the northern part ofburkina faso.I want to seek your assistance after mydiscovery during auditing in my bank as am the managerof Bill and Exchange at the Foriegn RemittanceDepartment of Africa Development Bank,(A.D.B.) In mydepartment we discovered an abandoned sum ofUSD$20.8million US dollars in an account that belongsto one of our foreign customers who died along withhis entire family in plane Crashes of September 11,2001,
Since his death, we have been expecting his next ofKin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as nextof Kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in ourbanking and financial policies but unfortunately allthe efforts proved abortive. IT is therefore uponthis discovery that I decided as the head of mydepartment to make this business proposal to you andrelease the money to you as the next of kin orrelation to the deceased for safety and subsequentdisbursement since nobody is coming for it and wedon't want this money to go into the Bank treasury asunclaimed bills.
Do not view this as been illegal but an opportunityfor us to help enrich our hope in life instead of thebank converting this much money to the securityfunds.You should not nurse any atom of fear as allrequired arrangements have been made for the smoothtransfer of this funds and your acceptance is whatwill crown this effort.We will conclude this operationwithin 14 banking days based on the amount ofcoperation you will contribute.
Thank you for your undrstanding as await your urgentresponse to enable me give you more details.
Remain bless.
DR MAHMOODU ABDU
_________________________________________________________________
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