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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: HELEN CUTTER <helencutter15@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <stoickandrian@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Jan 2008 19:29:19 +0000
Subject: RE:YOUR COMPENSATION PAYMENT



RE:YOUR COMPENSATION PAYMENTOFFICE OF THE FINANCIAL AUDITORSINTERNATIONAL CREDIT SETTLEMENT DEPTLONDONAttention: Beneficiary,This is to officially inform you that we have verified your payment filewhich worth about Ten Million United States Dollars (US$10,000,000.00)only.We also found out that you have not receive any payment since theBritish Government has set aside Eight Hundred Million United StateDollars (US$800,000,000.00) only from the One Billion Dollars collected fromfraudsters with the help of the Economic Financial Crime Commissionsboth in London and Nigeria. These include cash and frozen assess tocompensate those who have been attempted or victims of fraud by someimposters/fraudsters in Nigeria, London and other part of the country.Hence we have decided to bring a solution to your problem by arrangingyour payment through an accredited bank in USA. This is the latestinstruction by the President Chief Umaru Musa Yar' Adua (GCFR) FederalRepublic of Nigeria and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Conjuctionwith US government.Please confirm if you will like to receive the fund (US$10,Million) bysending us the below information and how you wish to receive your fund.For your information you have to stop any further communication with anyother person(s) or office(s) in respect of transferring your fund, thisis to avoid any hitches in finalizing your payment. You are advised tocontact the below office of the Financial Auditor International CreditSettlement Dept. London with the above information as soon as youreceive this important message for more direction on thisContact Person: Helen CutterEmail:helenoffice445@yahoo.comEmail:decision445@yahoo.comNote that because of impostors, we hereby issued you our code ofconduct, which is (445) so you have to indicate this code whencontacting the Helen Cutter.Regards,Ms.Helen CutterSecretary
_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources: