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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: "HEATHER ROSS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <heatross02@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 10:11:07 -0800
Subject: RE: CAN I TRUST YOU ??

Dearest Friend,

My name is Heather Ross, Assistant Station Manager, Tikrit-American Red Cross working here in Iraq with the military. I am in a desperate need for assistance, which i have summed up courage to contact you. I am seeking your kind assistance to move the sum of $4.8million (Four Million Eight hundred thousand United States Dollars) to you as far as I can be assured that the money will be used for charity and humanitarian purposes as strictly requested by the owner.

Source of money: The money belonged to Cpl. Dustin R. Brisky, 26, of Round Rock, Texas, died June 4 in Tallil, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an explosion. He was assigned to the Army Reserve’s 952nd Engineer Company, Paris, Texas. The unit was attached to the 92nd Engineer Battalion, 3rd Sustainment Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, and Fort Stewart, Ga. This money was part of his share from the money they discovered in barrels at a farmhouse near one of Saddam's old palaces in Tikrit, Iraq during a rescue operation. You can go to this web link to read about events that took place then via this site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm

He was hoping to move the money out of Iraq before he died. I was attending to him when he confided in me and told me about the money. His last wish was that I should help him make arrangement to move the money out of Iraq and then contact you to receive it so that you can use it to help the less privileged and other charitable activities that will uplift and profit humanity and mankind. With the help of a British contact working here, whose office enjoys immunity, I was able to get the package out of Iraq to the United Kingdom where it is quite safe. Now the British contact does not know the real contents of the package. She believes that they are personal valued properties of the late Dustin Brisky who trusted me to hand over the package to his family before he died. Now I have just found a very secured way of delivering this package to you without any problems. Now that I have agreed to do this with you, I will want you to keep it highly confidential between both of us a
nd I have decided to split the mo

Please I want you to keep this matter absolutely confidential as any leakage of this information will be too bad for those of us serving in Iraq. I do not know how long we will still be here in Iraq, but whatever happens, I will be in constant touch with you.

Remain blessed as I await your urgent response to this mail.

Please do send your response to my safe email account:( heatross02@gmail.com )

Heather Ross.

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