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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: "William" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <will.cheg@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 20 Mar 2011 03:20:25 +0100
Subject: Grüße aus Hong Kong-greetings

Grüße aus Hong Kong.
Hallo, mein Name ist William Cheung aus Hongkong.
Ich habe ein Geschäft Satz für Sie aus der Summe der 44,500,000.00.
Ich möchte, dass mein Partner, wenn Sie Interesse
haben, kontaktieren Sie mich zurück über meine
private Adresse williamcheg33@yahoo.com.hk oder williamcheg73@aol.com
Ich werde Ihnen alle Details, wenn ich Ihre Antwort zu bekommen.
Vielen Dank. Ich spreche kein Deutsch, ich spreche Englisch. Ich übersetzte diese Nachricht.
William Cheung

Anti-fraud resources: