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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: "PCH Sweepstakes" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <pchsweepstakes@msn.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Jun 2011 15:40:20 +0800
Subject: Re: Hello

Your e-mail has won $1,000,000.00 in the recent Publishing Clearing House Lottery,please reply  immediately to collect
your winnings.Please Send Your Info, Name, Address, Phone Number to:pchsweepstakes/at/msn.com . You will be given more
details by our information centre when you send them your reply .
 
Best regards,
Todd Sloan
PCH.SWEEPSTAKES.

Anti-fraud resources: