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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: Mary Andrew <maryandrew021@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:02:04 +0000
Subject: FROM ME AND MY KID SISTER


Hello,

My name is Mary Andrew, I am 21 years old and I have my small sister with me Flora Andrew, who is 18 years.
We are the Orphans of late Gen. Verissimo Andrew who was killed in accusation for leading a military coup
in my country (Guinea-Bissau).

My father, who worked for a long time with the ministry of Gold & Mines had informed me in few months to his death that he made a deposit of $19 Million Dollars with a bank in Ivory Coast for onward transfer purposes for foreign investment outside Africa. When we had about the tragedy from school, I flew with my sister to Ivory Coast for our safety. Presently we are stranded here because there has always been a political crises here, we don't know anybody around here and we can not go back to our country to stay though, we have located the bank where our father made the deposit but we can not lay hands on the money due to the deposit policy, but the bank has advised us to present our guardian to the bank who will stand for us as next of kin so that they can make further transfer to the persons account, and this is the only option we could get the money for now.

Please we need your help to serve as our guardian, so that the bank can release the money to you, and you will save our lives by bringing us to your country after the transferring of the money to your bank account. Please help us as we are always leaving everyday in risk here.

I have decided with my sister to give you the chance to map out the modalities hence we can trust you. We are looking forward to hear from you as soon as possible.

Yours faithfully,
Mary Andrew.


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