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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: "Doust John" <john_doust@student.com>
Reply-To: j_doust@uymail.com
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2008 20:26:09 +0100
Subject: FROM JOHN DOUST (URGENT)


Goodday,

I am Mr John Doust, a British Citizen and one of the team members
monitoring external auditing accounts and deposits for the United
Overseas Bank(UOB), working as part of a bigger team that covers the
entire European region. And during my many years of work, I have seen
and learnt alot about the system that many deposits and accounts are
left without the original depositor coming forward for claims.

I have all the legal and Banking details of some of the deposits with
some deceased clients. This will facilitate our putting you forward as
the claimant/beneficiary of the funds and ultimately transfer of the
Millions of Pounds or Euros plus interest to any bank account
nominated by you.

I am prepared to compensate YOU with a 30% share of each
transfer done total for your efforts. The final details will be given
to you upon receipt of your mail so that we can proceed as soon as
possible.

Regards
John Doust

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