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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: "Thomas Taylor" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <tmtaylor@in.com>
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 2010 05:39:52 +0800
Subject: Your swift response will be highly appreciated

I am Thomas Taylor,a director of the Malaysia-Based Shell Petroleum Company in UK one of the largest oil companies with over 1.2 trillion capital investment fund, nevertheless the finance manager who handles all staff welfare accounts and I extracted 1.2% excess maximum return capital profits (EMRCP) per annum on each of the staffs' capital fund. As an expert I have made over $6.2M from the staffs EMRCP and hereby looking for someone to trust who will stand as an investor to receive the fund as annual investment proceed from shell capital fund of 2010 for the cooperation in building a Tourist Hotel or Real estate.
I am sorry if this is not in line with your business, but I need a trustworthy person like you to assist me to set up, develop the project and assume responsibility of ownership as chairman but will be bringing in profits, distribute profit monthly or annually. All confirmable documents to back up the claims will be made available to you as the transaction progresses, while I shall also give you more information on this project as soon as I receive your acceptance message. I understand that we are total strangers but I still believe I can confide in you about this confidential matter which I know you won't let me down as I believe that nothing is impossible to a willing heart because the strength of the heart comes from the soundness of the faith. Hence your immediate reply will be highly appreciated because we have just few weeks left before our team of external auditors arrived for the year general auditing therefore we have to round up this transaction on a timely manner.
Meanwhile I have worked out the strategies and technicalities whereby the fund can be claimed by you in a bank nearest to you without any stress. I will first of all offer you 20% of the total money at the end of the transaction while I take 80% for my own business which we shall still both benefit from. Kindly observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that this transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I will still require your assistance on my own share for the investment. I have also worked out the strategies and modalities regarding smooth remittance / clearance of the funds, and it is 100% risk free from now and in future.
So please be reaffirmed that due to the time limit you are expected to be in contact with me on time to declare your willingness in order for me to commence on the documentation process.
Thanks very much in anticipation of your cooperation and understanding. Hoping that you will treat this letter with urgency and privacy it requires for the reason already stated above.
Please reply to; tmtaylor@in.com
Or ; tmtaylor1969@ymail.com
Your swift response will be highly appreciated
Yours sincerely
Thomas Micheal Taylor

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