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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: "John Mbah." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <john23mbah@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 05:05:47 -0500
Subject: RESPOND VERY URGENT


RESPOND VERY URGENT

I am John Mbah special account officer to the Former Libya President Moammar Gadhafi who was killed by Libyan rebels on Thursday 20th oct 2011 I write to seek your assistant I have some $53m in my custody which I deposited for him with our bank here in Citibank of London and I was the only person that know about this fund if you are willing to assist me of receiving this money into your account kindly let me hear from you for more details. Reply: chirstmorgan@rediffmail.com


Best Regards and God bless.
John Mbah.

Anti-fraud resources: