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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: Mohamed Harry <mh_harry11@msn.com>
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2010 15:43:52 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Waiting for your urgent response!!!



It will be a surprise for you to receive this mail.
 
I am Mr Mohamed Harry, the director of accounts & auditing dept, at the bank of Africa Ouagadougou-west Africa . With due respect, i have decided to contact you on a business transaction that will be beneficial to both of us.
At the bank's last accounts/auditing evaluations, my staffs came across an old account which was being maintained by a foreign client who we learnt was among the deceased passengers of an airline crash on 25th July 2000.
Since the deceased was unable to run this account since his death. The account has remained dormant without the knowledge of his family since it was put in a safe deposit account in the bank for future investment by the customer.
Since his demise, nobody, not even the members of his family have applied for claims over this fund and it has been in the safe deposit account until we discovered that it cannot be claimed since our customer is a foreign national and we are sure that he has no next of kin here to file claims over this money.
 
As the director of the dept, this discovery was brought to my office so as to decide what is to be done. With the few personnel in my dept, we decided to seek ways through which to transfer this money out of the bank and out of the country too. The total amount in the account is Fifteen million dollars (USD$15, 000,000.00).
With our positions as staffs of the bank, we are handicapped because we cannot operate foreign accounts and cannot lay bona fide claim over this money. The customer is a foreign national and you will only be asked to act as his next of kin and i will supply you with all the necessary information’s and bank data to assist you in being able to transfer this money to any bank of your choice where this money could be transfer into.
 
I and my partners have decided to give away thirty (30%) to you for your assistance and ten (10%) for any expenses that might arise during the transfer of this transaction. I want to assure you that this transaction is absolutely risk and hitch free transaction to you, since i work in this bank which is why you should be confident in the success of this transaction because you will be updated with information as at when desired and i will please wish you keep this transaction secret and confidential.
Upon your reply i will send to you the details and text of application which you are going to fill and send to the bank for the claiming of the said fund into your bank account.
 
May ALLAH help you to help me to a restiveretirement Amine!
Thanks and remain blessed,
Mr Mohamed Harry.



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