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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: "REV JOHNSON SCOTT" <johnscott@hosanna.net>
Reply-To: rev.johnsonscott@live.com
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2008 02:14:11 -0700
Subject: MESSAGE FROM REV FATHER JOHNSON SCOTT


*THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION
IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
WORLD BANK FACT-FINDING & SPECIAL DUTIES OFFICE
LONDON UNITED KINGDOM.


Greetings to you,I am Rev.Johnson Scott, a senior staff with the World Bank
fact finding & special duties office. I am writing you this letter because
cool penny is better than millions of dollars. It is better for one to live
and die poor honest man than a rich dishonest one.

I and the chief security officer (CSO) of this organization have arranged
with an officer in computer section engineer Peter Cliff to bring out part
of your total pending payment sum amounting to US$10 million. Why we did
this is because according to information gathered from the bank?s/security
computer, you have been waiting for a long time to receive your money
without success. As I found out that you have almost met all the statutory
requirements in respect of your pending payment, your problem is that of
interest groups. A lot of people are interested in your payment and those
people are merely doing paper works with you and that explains why you
receive fax and phone messages from different people everyday. Also we
found out that some of the officials of the parastatals have been extorting
a lot of money from you with the pretext of helping you receive your money.
I can assure you that this may last for years yet nothing happens if you do
not do away with those officers that you call your partners. And for
security reasons do not tell anybody that you have your money until you
receive cash at your door step.The money is in a security-proof box weighing
75kg.

Yesterday we went to four courier companies to make arrangements on how to
ship them by courier to you. DHL, EMS, FEDEX, UPS all said that they must
open the boxes for inspection by the customs before shipment. This is
something we want to avoid because the box is padded with synthetic nylon
and to open it, you have to cut the pad before you will meet the button that
you will press to open the dial code-lock. There is no way you can open the
box and be able to close it again because it was padded with machine. We
told the courier services that the box contained film materials and when
open will spoil the materials. We did not declare money because courier does
not carry money.

Today a friend of mine who is diplomat disclosed to me that there is a
security courier service they use to send diplomatic materials and
information from one country to another. It has diplomatic immunity and
consignment cannot be checked by any customs anywhere in the world. I have
met the officials of the security courier service and concluded shipping
arrangement with them, which they will commence as soon as i have your go
ahead order. The diplomat will help me so we do not have any problem. We
have concluded that you must donate Five Hundred Thousand United States
dollars (US$500,000.00) to any charity organization I designate as soon as
you receive your money. To this effect, you will send us a promissory note
for Five Hundred Thousand United States dollars (US$500,000.00) along with
your address for sending the box by courier. Please maintain topmost secrecy
as it may cause a lot of problems if found out that we are using this way to
help you. Do not ever tell anybody know about this until you have your
money. I want to help you because something in me is telling me that you are
an honest person. When you conclude this and you send our promise, we will
help to ship the final part of your money to you.God be with you as we wait
for your reply on email address:(rev.johnsonscott@live.com)

Yours faithfully,
Rev.Johnson Scott.
*

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