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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: "John Brown" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jamescaldwell4@live.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:58:30 -0700
Subject: Write us Back

Hello Dear,

We sincerely apologies for the delay in getting back to you, However the good news is that we want to notify you that all payment problems has been resolved, therefore your payment is ready and has been made out in form of Personal Identification Number (P.I.N), and In accordance with the payment instruction, once we receive your reply, we will send you an email with the list of required information to help facilitate the processing of your payment.

I will expect you reply to jamescaldwell4@live.co.uk

Write me back

Regards,

J.B
International Payment System
(I.P.S)

Anti-fraud resources: