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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: "james" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jamesgasso1@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2010 22:27:16 +0100
Subject: PLEASE CONTACT ME

Dear Friend, 
 
I am Mr. James Gasso. I was the manager bills and exchange at the foreign remittance department of a firm in Europe. The sum of $25m US dollars (Twenty Five Million United States Dollars) is in the firm safety deposit vault that belongs to one of our foreign customer Mr. And reas Schranner, who died along with his entire family on 31st July 2000 in a ghastly plane crash in western German city of Monchengladbach.
 
 
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his estate because the management cannot release it unless somebody comes as the next of kin to the deceased with the right documents as indicated in our firm guidelines but unfortunately I learnt that all his family died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. Since all my efforts of me to reach any of his relative has been to no ava il, I decided to use the deceased surname name to check for any information it can attract from Equifax and your name and email popped out and after several other trails your name and email still popped out so I am reaching you so you can come forward and collect your estate from your late relative.
The estate was deposited in the firm since 1999 and from the firm policy after a reasonable time frame when nobody comes for collection after the expiring date paid on safe keeping on the estate; the estate can become the property of the government/the firm. I do not want the estate to revert into the hands of the government or in the firm but from the way proceedings are going it will revert into their hands, so I have decided to reach you so you can go forward and clai m what I think is rightfully yours and since I have the documents you need to claim the estate once you tender the documents then you can have it easily. 
 
If I do not get any reply from you then I will accept the fact that you do not want to claim the estate or you have not been able to check your email but in anyways your time is running out in claiming the estate. I have all the information of this deposit and I can only give them to you once we have established communication.
Please do not hesitate to reach me. 
 
Have a nice day,
Mr. James Gasso.
 

Anti-fraud resources: