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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: j_melrose@virginbroadband.com.au
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2011 17:21:48 +0100
Subject: Lets do this

Guaranty Trust Bank,
(UK) Limited,
60-62 Margaret Street,
London W1W 8TF.

Greetings,

I am Mr. James Melrose and i work with Guaranty Trust Bank (UK)
Limited.
There Is an account opened in my bank in 2003 and since 2007 nobody has
operated on this account again, after going through some old file in
the
records I discovered that if I do not remit this money out urgently it
would be forfeited for nothing. The owner of this account is Mr. Pat
Groves,
a foreigner and a miner at Mount Resources Ltd. a geologist by
profession.
He died since 2007, and no other person knows about this account or
anything
concerning it. The account has no other beneficiary and my
investigation
proved to me as well that his company does not know anything about his
account and the amount involved is Thirty Six Million United States
Dollars.


I am only contacting you as a foreigner because the bank is going to
welcome
you as a foreigner that has correct information about the account,
which I
will give to you before we proceed. I need your full co-operation to
make this
work fine. If you are capable to handle such an amount in strict
confidence
and trust we will achieve this money immediately, I will also use my
position
to influence approvals and immediate onward transfer of this money to
your
account for sharing and further investments.


I look forward to your earliest reply.



Best Regards,
James Melrose

Anti-fraud resources: