419 Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam (2006-01)

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: Mr Greg Adams <greg82a@ymail.com>
Reply-To: "greg82a@gmail.com" <greg82a@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 2010 02:15:38 +0100
Subject: For Confirmation Visit:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3348109.stm

Hello Dear,

With reference to the death of our client and his entire family as a result of plane crash in my country,i decide to contact you as a foreigner, so that we can claim the US$2.9M he left in his fix deposit account, instead of this corrupt government officials to claim it, which they will later use to sponsor war in the quest for political office, thereby killing innocent citizens.

After conducting a standard process investigation (SPI) regarding this matter, i found out that this is a safe deal if you can only maintain the confidentiality it requires. I am constrained from providing you with more detailed information until am sure you are truly with me in this deal.

Waiting for your response.

Mr Greg Adams,
Director of Foreign Operations,
Financial Trust Bank Benin.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam