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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: john paul <johnpaul_jp_jp007@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: johnpaul_jp001@myway.com
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 17:41:40 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: URGENT REPLY



My Dear friend,

My name is Mr. John paul, the personal account officer to the great late diseased who has an account in one of the top banks here in South Africa. The account was opened in 2001 and he died in 2004 without a written or oral WILL and since 2004 nobody has operated on this account again hence the money is floating and if I do not remit this money out urgently it will be forfeited for nothing and the Govt.of South Africa will confiscate the funds for their personal use which I personally don't want such incident to happen being that this is a great opportunity for me.
My contact is for you to please assist me to transfer the fund ($25,000,000USD)twenty five million United State Dollars from a Cooperate Bank here in South Africa to an oversea account.

I have packaged this transaction that will be of mutual benefit to us. As the branch manager, it is my duty to send a financial report to my head office in the capital city, Pretoria, at the end of each financial year.I have moved the funds into what the bank call Escrow Holding Account with no beneficiary. Meanwhile as you know I can not be directly connected to this money for obvious reasons.

So my contacting you is to assist me receive the funds in your bank account in your country; which I know is possible if you liaise properly with me and get 30% of the total funds as your benefit. The transfer would be made via swift and it will be a Bank-to-Bank wired transfer. All I need from you is to stand claim as the original depositor ofthis fund. I will compute your particulars as the person who made the deposit in my branch, so that my head office will immediately order the transfer to your designated bank Account.Email me if you think we can work together. Thanks for your understanding and co-operation.
Via my private box is {johnpaul_jp001@myway.com}
Yours truly,
Mr. John paul


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