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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: "Stefan Krause" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <skrause40@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 28 May 2011 01:59:01 +1000
Subject: Hello,

Hello,How are you doing? it is a pleasure to be in contact with you and i hope you are ok. I am sending you this email in regard of a deal i want to go into with you, i noticed that Thomas Stone made a fixed deposit in my branch, and the money is dormant, no withdrawal, no deposit for many years, I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply After two months, we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his contract employers, that Thomas Stone died in a plane crash in Egypt Air Flight 990, 1999 air crash check the link below:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1999/11/01/iran/main49778.shtml
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/502503.stm

Since we got this information about his death, I therefore made further investigation and discovered that Thomas Stone did not declare any kin or relations in all his official documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork in the Bank. No one has ever come forward to claim it.I think of using you as the kin, that is why i contacted you so that after the money get to your account, i will come over to your country for us to share 50/50. All i need is to place your name in the system data base since i have the password and i will direct you on how this can be done legal without any problem. If you have any question ask me. Stefan

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