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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: j_melrose@virginbroadband.com.au
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2011 01:30:53 -0700
Subject: Lets Do This

Greetings,

I am Mr. Fergus Mcdonald 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,
Fergus McDonald

Anti-fraud resources: