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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: "Mrs. Mary Benson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <andrewmichael001@live.com.au>
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 14:45:29 -0500
Subject: Attention Email ID User Congratulation!!

Attention Email ID User,

We happily announce to you the draw of the Lottery National Special Global 2010 Promotional Draw held in Benin Republic.Your e-mail address attached to REF No;ESP/62934LN/2010, with Batch No: CH 200 drew the Winning No: 02 10 16 18 27 41, Bonus No: 28 for LN-49 Lotto under the choice of the lottery in the 1st category.

All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site throughcomputer draws system and extracted from over 10,000,000 companies and personal e-mails. So your email is your online automatic ticket that qualified you for this draw. You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of 600,000.00 united states Dollars (Six Hundred Thousand united states dollars)

Therefore, you are required to forward your details to our claims department/Finance/Legal office to help facilitate the processing of your fund as stated below: (A) Name (B) Cell phone (c) Address (D) Occupation (E) Age (F) Country of residence

Contact Person:Mr. Andrew Michael
E-mail: andrewmichael001@live.com.au

Sincerely,
Mary Benson (Mrs.)
Lottery Controller General
BN-49 Lottery

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