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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Mr Gibson Dawa <mrgibson.dawa@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2011 05:45:17 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: A GOOD OPPURTUNITY TO BE GRAB.










































Dear friend,
 
It will
be a surprise for you to receive this mail, welcome this letter. I am
(Mr. Gibson Dawa) The
Director of the Accounts & Auditing Dept, At the Bank du internationale Burkina
Faso Ouagadougou- West
Africa .
 
With due respect I Have Decided to contact you
on a business transaction that will be Benefit both of us. At the Bank's Last
Accounts/Auditing Evaluations, my staffs Came Across an old account which was
being maintained by a foreign client who we learnt was among the deceased
passengers of an Airline Crash On 6th Nov 2002.
 
Since the deceased was
unable to run this account since his Death. The Account has remained dormant
without the knowledge of his family since it was put in a safe
deposit account in the bank for future investment by The
Client.
 
Since his demise, nobody, not
even the members of his family have applied for claims over this fund and it has
been in the safe deposit Account until we discovered that it cannot be claimed
since our client Foreign
national and we are sure that he has no next of kin here to File
Claims over the money. As the director of the dept, this discovery was brought
to my office so as to decide what is to be done. With the few personnel in my
Dept, we decided to seek ways through which to transfer this money out Of the
Bank and out of the country too.     
The total amount in the accounts is
(US$7.5M) without positions as staffs of the bank, we are handicapped because we
cannot operate foreign accounts and cannot lay bonfire claim over this money.
While we were contemplating on what to Do, a Friend of mine who works with the
chamber of commerce and industry recommended your personality to me advised I
should ask you for Help to Transfer this money out of the country. The client is
a foreign national And You will only be asked to act as his next of kin and I
will supply you With All the necessary information's and bank data to assist you
in being able to Transfer this money to any bank of your choice where this money
could be transferred into.
 
I and my partners have decided to give away
forty (40%) to you for Your Assistance and ten (10%) for any expenses that might
arise during the Transaction of this transfer. We want to assure you that this
transaction's absolutely risk free since we work in this bank which is why you
should Be Confident in the success of this transaction because you will be
updated with information as at when desired. Kindly fill this below information
so that I will use them to process next of kin application form, which you will
fill and send to my bank for the transfer.
 
Full
Name........................
Home Address...........................

Age................................

Sex.......................................
Personal
Number...........................
Fax
Number.................................
Receiving
Country............................
Occupation.............................

 
I need your urgent response to enable us proceed further for the
transaction. 
Thanks and remain blessed. 
  
Yours Faithfully,

Mr. Gibson Dawa.




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