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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: Mrarwan Ibrahim <mrarwanibrahim@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2010 21:25:31 GMT
Subject: STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL :

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL :
 
 
Dear Friend              
 
I know that this mail will come to you as a surprise as we never met before. I am Mr.ARWAN IBRAHIM, the manager of Auditing and Accounting section of Bank Of Africa (B.O.A) Ouagadougou Burkina Faso. I Hoped that you will not expose or betray this trust and confident that I am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of our both families. I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of Fifteen Million Five Hundred Thousand united state dollars ($15.5mUSD) Immediately to your account.
 
The fund has been dormant (in-active) for 10 years in our Bank here without any body coming for it. I want to release the fund to you as the nearest person to our deceased customer Mr. Andreas Schranner (the owner of the account) who died a long with his supposed next of kin in air crash since on 31st July 2000. I don't want the fund to go into our Bank treasury as an abandoned fund, so this is the reason why I contacted you, so that my Bank will release the fund to you as the nearest person to the deceased customer.
 
For more information about the crash you can visit this site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm
 
Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not interested. Upon receipt of your reply, I will give you more details regarding this transaction and also note that you will have 40% of the above mentioned amount if you agree to help me execute this business. And also after the funds has been transfered into your bank account you will take 10% out as a compensation for the expenses you will make in this transaction and 50% is for me. I need to hear from you urgent so that I will give you more information regarding this transaction.
 
Your Full Name...........................?
 
Your Sex.................................?
 
Your Age.................................?
 
Your Country.............................?
 
Marital Status......................?
 
Your Occupation..........................?
 
Your Personal Mobile N°...................?
 
Your Personal Fax N°......................?
 
Waiting for your urgent response so that we will starts immediately.
REPLY VIA: mrarwanibrahim@gmail.com
 
Best Regards,
Mr.ARWANI BRAHIM.
 
 
 
 
 

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