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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: "Mr James Smith" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jamessmith1681@yahoo.com.cn>
Date: Thu, 10 Dec 2009 07:48:03 -1200
Subject: Hello...


Dear friend,

My Name is Mr. James Smith, a senior Auditor and Heading-computing department here in our bank.

On my routine inspection I discovered a dormant domiciliary account with a balance of £35 million (THIRTY FIVE MILLION POUNDS ONLY). I have only written to seek your assistance in transferring this fund.

The owner of the fund was a foreigner, late Mr. Thomas Stockley. An American Citizen who unfortunately lost his life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261, which crashed on
January 31 2000. I am proposing to make this transfer to a designated bank account of your choice.

You can view this link for more details about the plane crash
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines_Flight_261#Passengers

Note that this transaction is confidential and risk free. As soon as you receive this mail you should contact me by return mail. In the event you are not interested, I sincerely ask that you disregard this email and tell no one about it. I am very careful on truncating my banking career should you mention this to someone else. I hope you can be trusted in this regard.

Please note that all necessary arrangement for the smooth release of these funds to you has been finalized. We will discuss much in details when I do receive your response. Your share will be 30% of the total transfer sum after the transfer has been successfully concluded.

Please in your response include your telephone and fax numbers for a better communication between us. You can reach me on the email below:


Let me know if you can handle it.

Best Regards,


Mr James Smith

My contact details:

Email: jamessmith1681@yahoo.com.cn

Anti-fraud resources: