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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: "Harry Nimmo" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <harrynimmo000@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:31:00 +0100
Subject: Your last name

Standard Life Investment
1 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 2LL
United Kingdom.
www.standardlifeinvestments.com

Attention:

My name is Harry Nimmo , 53 yrs old fund manager with Standard Life
Investment
(SLI) UK. We are financial institution that use our insight, intellect and
focus on change investment approach to spot opportunities that others may
not see. Our research is meticulous, some would say painstaking. But it's
this analytical rigour that creates advantage for our clients. We strive to
always be a step ahead of market movements, industry development and
lifestyle changes.
I have a very important request that made me to contact you and as I said,
this proposal however is not mandatory nor will I in any manner compel you
to honor it against your will. In 2003, a 24 months calendar deposit of
$28million was made with our company under your last name but a different
first name and this deposit was terminated in May 2005 by the investor and
since then I have not set my eyes on him. I was informed he died in a plane
crash with his wife. I have tried all possible best to locate the family
members but all my effort was unproductive.
Not any other person has the informations about this investment fund
except me.
2 weeks ago, I had a meeting with my Executives and I was told as the fund
manager of the deceased investor to provide his next of kin or foreign
business partner otherwise they will convert the $28m into companys
treasury after November 7th 2010. This is why i decided to run a search on
that last name to locate someone who bears the same last name so as to find
out if he/she is related to the deceased and if not then we have a deal. The
deal is this, I have every legal power as the fund manager to this deceased
to present you as the relative and this way the company can make out this
payment to prevent the company from having the fund converted into company
treasury. It was not a easy to find someone with the same last name not
until I ran a search on the last name and your name appeared which prompted
me to contact you. I have decided that if we both go into this business deal
with strict confidence and i am able to present you as the next of kin by
jointly securing the legal document from our legal department that will
empower the approval and release of funds to you, then you will get 40% for
your participation and corporation while I keep 60% after which we can
discuss on a mutual investment to carry out in your country.

If you are interested, please forward me your direct email and phone number
for further discussion.

Harry Nimmo.


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