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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: "Elliot Francis" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <franciselliot20@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:36:25 +0200
Subject: A Deal/Business Proposal

Hello,

I contact you to seek your hand in executing a deal that is worth millions of dollars.For security reasons,i cannot expantiate on the deal unless i am sure you are ready to do this deal with me.

Fist of all,i will appreciate your response indicating if you would like to know more and along the line,we will have to inroduce ourselves to have an idea of who we are.

Regards.

F. Elliot


Anti-fraud resources: