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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: "Michael Fan Chang" <ebfa100@rediffmail.com>
Reply-To: edbahir@comcast.net
Date: Sat, 13 Sep 2008 02:25:43 -1200
Subject: INVESTMENT/PARTNERSHIP RELATIONSHIP


El programa de detecci=F3n de Spam del sistema "dns1.ciberweb.com.mx", ha
identificado este mensaje como "correo basura". A=F9n as=ED, el
mensaje original no se ha borrado para su chequeo, si lo
era, podr=EDa bloquearlo en su programa de correo (cree un "filtro"
a partir de la etiqueta "X-Spam-Score"). Si tiene alguna duda,
contacte con el administrador para m=E1s detalles.

Contenido: Greeting to you, First, I must insist on your confidence
in this transaction I am about to propose to you. I am Mr. Michael Fan
Chang, former branch assistant manager of the Bank of China, Kaiping
Branch and I am making this contact with you based on reliable
information available to me courtesy of internet business index and
confirmed by our local chambers of commerce and industry. Thus I believe
that you maybe be capable to provide me with a solution to a money
transfer transaction of huge sums of money (amount not stated for
security reasons) [...]=20

Detalles del an=E1lisis: (10.5 puntos, 5.0 requeridos)

pts regla aplicada descripci=F3n
---- ---------------------- ---------------------------------------
1.0 UNDISC_RECIPS Valid-looking To "undisclosed-recipients"
1.0 SUBJ_ALL_CAPS Subject is all capitals
-1.4 ALL_TRUSTED Passed through trusted hosts only via SMTP
2.4 MILLION_USD BODY: Talks about millions of dollars
2.9 ADVANCE_FEE_3 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
3.0 ADVANCE_FEE_4 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
0.0 ADVANCE_FEE_1 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
1.6 ADVANCE_FEE_2 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)



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