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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: Samuel & Rita Johnson <j-ramsay@sbcglobal.net>
Reply-To: ritajohnson4i0@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Mon, 24 May 2010 05:12:44 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Greetings from Rita and Samuel



Greetings from Rita and Samuel
How are you today? I know that my letter will meet you as a surprise. I am Samuel Johnson and my younger sister is Rita I am 17, my mother was an African American while my father was from the French speaking colony of Coted'Ivoire, we were living with our mother in Australia before she died.

We lost our mother sometime ago and after her death we came to meet our father for the very first time in Coted'Ivoire West Africa, though he was also living with us in Australia before he relocated back to Coted'Ivoire to set up a business.

Exactly two months and one week after we came to meet our father with the help of the Australian friends and nabours, he died. He was very sick when we came to meet him. But before his death there were some documents he gave to us and he told us that everything he worked for in his life time is in the document, when we crosscheck the document we discovered that my late father deposited ($9.5 Million dollars) Nine million Five hundred thousand US dollars. He used my name as his only son as the next of kin when depositing the money. He also explained to me that it was because of this wealth that his relatives conspired to poison him. That I should seek for a foreign partner in any country of my choice where I will transfer this money and use it for investment purposes (such as real estate management, hotel business and any other good business of your choice).

I am honourably seeking your help and assistance in the following ways.
(1). To provide a bank account where this money would be transferred to
(2) To serve as the guardian of this fund because of our age, I dont have any business idea and have not been into business for the first time, and in other not to lose this money. To make arrangement for me and my younger Sister to come over to your country after the money has been transferred to your account and finally to secure a college for my sister and I to enable us further our education.

However, we have accepted to offer you 10% of the total sum as compensation for your help after the successful transfer of this money to your account overseas. Furthermore, you can indicate your option to assisting us as I believe that this transaction would be concluded within seven (7) days you signify your interest to assist us.
Thank you and God bless you.
Sincerely Yours,
Rita and Samuel

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