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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: "MICHAEL OLIVER" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <solicitoratlawfirm@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:06:36 +0100
Subject: INFORMATION%


Good day,
I am Michael Oliver , staff of International Private Banking. I am contacting you concerning a deceased customer and an investment he placed under our banks management Five years ago. I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this mail. I contacted you independently of our investigation and no one is informed of this communication.

I would like to intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you. In 2002 , Mr. Vladimir Yegor came to our bank to engage in business discussions with our private banking division which later led to a deposition of Thirty Two Million Seven Hundred Thousand United States Dollars, which he wished to have us turn over (invest) on his behalf. The favored route in my advice to customers is to start by assessing data on 6000 traditional stocks and bond managers and 2000 managers of alternative investments.


Based on my advice, we spun the money around various opportunities and made attractive margins In mid June 2004, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed to make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in the United States of America on June the 20th, 2006. On May the 3rd, tragedy struck when a Airbus A-320 Plane crashed killing our client with the remaining 112 passengers.
For more Information see: http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/02/russia.plane/index.html

This is the situation and failing to receive viable claims in regards to instructions he left for the 20th of June, the bank will most probably claim the deposit and the portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the Private Banking division because no next of kin was stated on our database.


What I wish to relate to you will smack of unethical practice but I want you to understand something. It is only an outsider to the banking world who finds the internal politics of the banking world aberrational. The world of private banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for those who occupy certain offices and oversee certain portfolios. You should have begun by now to put together the general direction of what I propose. I alone have the relevant details to make you a Business Partner to the deceased.

The investigation has almost started into who would be liable as next inline to the deceased. My proposal (should you accept); I am prepared to place you in a position where the funds can be your inheritance as his business partner which gives you legal rights over the funds in question. We can fine-tune this based on our interactions. I am aware of the consequences of this proposal.

I ask that if you find no interest in this project that you should discard this mail. I ask that you do not be vindictive and destructive. If my offer is of no appeal to you, delete this message and forget I ever contacted you. Do not destroy my career because you do not approve of my proposal.
I await your response

Thank you.

Yours Faithfully.

Michael Oliver

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