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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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <thecapitalonebankuk@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:19:22 +0100
Subject: CONFIRM YOUR PAYMENT

Mr. Koffi Adams
Capital One Bank
350 Euston Road, London NW1 3JJ
United Kingdom.

We have been instructed to make transfer of $4,900,000.00 (Four Million Nine Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) only to your account as payment of lottery/inheritance funds. A woman by name Mrs. Linda Simpson who claims to be your partner and Next of Kin has forwarded an account where the funds should be transferred to.

She said that you directed her to receive the funds on your behalf and we are contacting you to confirm this before we proceed. If you actually sent Mrs. Linda Simpson of Atlanta Georgia USA to receive the funds on your behalf, please let us know in a return mail but if you did not, immediately complete the spaces below to enable us process and release your funds within the next 48 hours.

We have been instructed to pay this to your account and we need your assistance to get this completed immediately. To avoid mistakes and wrongful payment, we require you to forward immediately the following:

Full names………………………………………..

Full Address………………………………………

Direct telephone and fax numbers………………..

Occupation……………………………………….

This will be used to process the payment documents from the relevant offices for transfer to be effected to your account within 48 hours.

Bank details where funds will be transferred to will be requested from you once we have all the clearance from the UK concerned offices to effect transfer to your account.

Do help us serve you better by confirming the above information immediately.

Yours faithfully,
Mr. Koffi Adams
Foreign Payment Officer

Anti-fraud resources: