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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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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.

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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "may come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "million united states dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
  • "urgent assistance" (scammers rush victims so they don't have time to think properly)
• This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
  

Fraud email example:

From: elhadj oumarou <el_oumarou27@msn.com>
Reply-To: <alhaji_oumarou@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 2009 22:43:30 +0000
Subject: I AWAITS YOUR QUICK RESPONSE.



>From the Desk of Mr. Elhadj Oumarou
Manager Auditing & Accounting Dept
Bank of Africa (BOA)
Ouagadougou Burkina Faso.
Web site: www.boaburkinafaso.com

Assalam Alaikoum,
I know that my mail may come to you as a surprise; please accept my apology if my mail does not meet your personal ethics. Do not regard my mail/ letter as a fraudulent activity having received from the internet as it is the easiest and fastest means for me to reach you. My name is Elhadj Oumarou; I am the Manager of Auditing & Accounting Department Bank of Africa Ouagadougou Burkina Faso. I am really convinced within my spirit and in my hearth that you will not betray this trust or expose this information’s am about exposing to you for the mutual benefit of our both families. I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of $12 million United States dollars to your foreign account that you will provide to my bank.

This money was deposited in our bank by a foreign customer for over 6 to 7 years, and presently the account is dormant due to nobody is operating the accounts. From my proper investigations, the owner of the account / funds is a citizen of Lebanon and he is a Gold merchant and an industrialist and was formerly mining in Sierra Leone where he based before the war broke out there and he relocated to Burkina Faso. From the recent information’s I got before I decided to contact you for the claim of these funds, my bank top executives directors are secretly planning to move these money to the escrow account as unclaimed funds and share these money among them if nobody comes for the claim at the end of this fiscal year 2009.

Regarding my unsuccessful to locate any relatives of the deceased customer, I contacting you to put claim over these money as the nearest living relative to the deceased customer, I guarantee that with my positions in the bank, I am capable of filing out the claim in your favour till the money enter into your account successful. But please if you are not interested, delete my letter and do not disclose or discuss about the information’s about these money to any one to avoid lapses with my plans, I plead you I have the intention to help the less privileged ones immediately the successful transfer of these money. Take note that you will have 40% of the total mentioned sum if you agree to work with me. Thank you, I will give you more details upon the receipt of your positive response.

Mr. Elhadj Oumarou

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam