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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: "james kweru" <kweru4@me.by>
Reply-To: jameskweru@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 01:49:50 +0000
Subject: Your Mail from James


Your Mail from James
Hello Dear,

My name is James Kweru from seirra leone but residing in Ivory Coast in
Africa. It is my desire to contact you on honesty and sincerity to assist
me in transferring the sum of $8,350,000 inherited from my father late
Mr.Alfred Kweru. I am motivated in contacting you and hope to gradually
build trust, relationship and confidence in you as i get to know you better.
So please i want to know if you will be of assistance but first i want to
get to know you better. I am willing to offer you $835,000 united state
Dollar for your effort input after the successful transfer of this money and
investment. Indicate your interest towards assisting me by sending your
phone # and address so that i can communicate with you at any time.

I will be waiting for your response
James Kweru

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