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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: "Frank C. Mahele" <frankcoulibaly@yahoo.fr>
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:32:35 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Dear Friend


From: Frank.C.Mahele,

Dear Friend,

I am a manager of one of the leading banks here in Cote d' Ivoire.
In my department we discovered a large abandoned sum of (US$5.2 Million) belonging to one of our Foreign Client, since 2000 nobody has operated this account. The owner of this account was a citizen of your country who worked with an oil servicing company here in Cote d'Ivoire.

He died while on vacation since 31/01/2000 in an air crash along with his wife in Alaska Airlines Flight 261 with other passengers on board. You can confirm from this website:http://www.nytimes.com/2000/02/03/us/passengers-and-crew-members-on-alaska-airlines-flight-261.htmll. No other person knows about this account.

The Strategy is to use my influence as Manager of the branch of this bank where the deposit was made,to approve the funds to you so we can share it fifty fifty.
If interested forward to me details of your full names, age,country,Profession, Phone and Fax numbers.

This will enable me to Contact you for further clarification. If on the otherhand,you find no interest in this project you should please discard this mail. If my offer is of no appeal to you,do not be vindictive or distructive. Simply delete this message and forget I ever contacted you.

Do not destroy my career because you do not approve of my proposal.  I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is for you to betray the trust i have in you If you are willing and capable of handling this transaction with me, indicate your interest by giving me positive signal and I will initiate this process towards a successful conclusion.

Regards.
Frank.C.Mahele

Anti-fraud resources: