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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 williams" <mrjameswilliams6ig@att.net>
Reply-To: <mrjameswilliams1@sify.com>
Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 03:52:26 +0200
Subject: classified information

Hello Dear, Please kindly permit me to introduce myself and this business deal opportunity which I want to do with you. My name is Mr james williams, a bank manager. I wish to know if we can work together. I want you to stand as the foreigner who made a huge deposits in my bank. The transfer would be made via swift and it will be a Bank-to-Bank wired transfer. All I need from you is to stand claim as the original depositor of this funds. I will compute your particulars as the person who made the deposit in my branch, so that my head office will immediately order the transfer to your designated bank Account. Please indicate If you are interested or not so that I can give you details on what we are to do, I urgently hope to hear from you as soonest. Best regards, Mr james williams

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