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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: "HSBC" (may be fake)
Date: Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:52:01 -0700
Subject: Irregular HSBC account activity - Read carefully!

HSBC Account Limitation

 

Dear HSBC Client,

 

We have detected an irregular activity on your HSBC Internet banking account on 29/07/2010.

Our main server has registered multiple failed logins coming from different countries.

As a result,we have temporary limited the access to your online banking account and we opened an investigation case.

 


Please visit http://www.hsbc.co.uk to update your personal information.

A unique cookie will be sent to our main server which will contain your IP Adress after you complete the update process.

We will review everything and within minutes your internet banking account will be re-activated.

Thank you for taking the time to solve our notification!

 

Anti-fraud resources: