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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: "ROLAND" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sir.rolandbrians@sify.com>
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 2009 08:27:13 -0700
Subject: BENEFICIARY TRANSFER

 
Hello,
 
Do accept my sincere apologies if my mail does not meet your personal ethics.
I am writing following an opportunity in my office that will be of immense benefit to both of us.
One of our accounts with holding balance of 20,000,000(Twenty Million British Pounds Sterlings)
has been dormant and has not been operated for the past 8 years.
From my investigations and confirmations, the owner of this account a foreigner by name Christian Marty (Concorde pilot) died in Monday,31 July, 2000 along with other 109 families in an AF4590 plane crash and since then nobody
has done anything as regards the claiming of this money because he has no family members who
are aware of the existence of neither the account nor the funds.
It may interest you to know that we have secured from the probate an order of mandamus to locate any of the deceased beneficiaries.
  As the bank manager,i have secretly discussed this matter with my acountant and we have agreed
to find a reliable foreign partner to deal with. I only have to approve you as the next of
kin/will beneficiary and the fund will be paid to you as the beneficiary. We are to share this
money between ourselves and also donate 10% to charity if you are really interested in this offer you should contact me
via email: sir.rolandbrians@sify.com
All documents to back your claims are ready.PLEASE DO NOT SEE THIS MESSAGE AS A SPAM.
Yours faithfully,
Roland Brians.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Anti-fraud resources: