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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: "Usman Musa" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <musa.usman@mail.com>
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2012 23:17:10 +0400
Subject: RE..

Salaam,
 
Firstly, dear sir/madam, I apologize for sending you this information via e-mail instead of a Certified mail/Post-mail. This is due to the urgency and importance,This is based on trust of purpose in order to have an acceptable meeting of the minds. I am Musa Usman sunmoyo, from Liberia, My father is an oil Exporter in our country and Libya, His one of the rich man in our country and he died in war resently and I am his only son. He told me that he have keep some money in save keeping before he died,  he told me that  I should used the money for any business that I like to do before he died. Due to my late father matrimonial problem and with my age, I moved from Liberia to stay in neighbouring countries, of which I need a responsible and honest person to handle this project for me since  I seek your cooperation to be my beneficiary since I dont know anything about your country.
 
My preference is any good profit yielding business and I will appreciate any good ideas you could come up with. That I will like you to assist me to received the money in your country on my behalf and used it for investment together in the area of any investment in your country. I shall instruct where the money was save to open conversation with you to moved the fund to you in your country for the investment you will advice to do, and for you to stand as the owner of the investment in your country.
For the assistance you will render for me in your country on the investment,The amount of the money is $US10.5M (Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand Dollars). And I promise to give you 15% of the money,
 
The share of the profit  will be share 70/30%, and you are standing as the owner of this invesment. And I will like you to be a trusted person to me, All I need from you is Your Contact Details for identification to the security company,Your telephone and fax numbers for communication,Your full permanent address,Your Occupation. So your details will be forwarded to the security company to enable them contact you accordingly to release of the fund on my behalf that you are my beneficiary to received the money on my behalf in your country for the investment. Please discard this message if you are not interested.
 
Waiting for your urgent reply
Masalam
Musa Usman

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