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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: "The Federal Reserve Board" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <fedreserve_2013@mail.kz>
Date: Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:52:42 +0100
Subject: AWAITING YOUR CONFIRMATION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE

The Federal Reserve Board,
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
20th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20551 ,
United States Of America.


Attn: Account Owner,

The men, Mark Edwards, Mr. John Maluife, including their cohorts, Dr. Williams Stevenson, Barrister Ebuwa Johnson who specializes in scamming foreign beneficiaries of hard currencies has been arrested by The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Before their arrest, the hoodlums had been impersonating the Board of Governors (or Federal Reserve Board), the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), Federal Reserve Bank, the United States Department of the Treasury & many other banks around the world which are located in USA, AFRICA, ASIA, EUROPE & AUSTRALIA, and non-existent lottery organizations at various times in a bid to obtain money from their unsuspecting victims home and abroad under false pretenses. They confessed to have used various fictitious names to carry out this criminal act. They were also said to have had access to vital documents of their unsuspecting victims at the Federal Reserve where they worked before they were sacked because of gross misconduct.

Documents recovered from them includes International passports and Drivers Licenses with different fictitious names, deposit and withdrawal vouchers bearing their real names. These International passports and Driver's Licenses were believed to have been used at different occasions to receive money as transfer charges from their unsuspecting victims. The activities of these criminals were exposed by Federal Reserve officials who reported that they duped you and some foreign beneficiaries of certain amount of monies.

When they were forced to open their Email boxes, which they did without reluctance, their assertions were confirmed. It was during this course that we came across your correspondences and Email address based on the Tip off from the Federal Reserve board, hence we decided to contact you through this channel for confirmation.

While making their statements under caution, they confessed to the crime and promised to refund all the money they collected from you. We discovered that they have with some Banks here in the United States where they deposited some of the money they collected from you.

We await your confirmation of this to enable us prosecute them and repatriate your money.


Yours faithfully,
Jerome H. Powell
The Federal Reserve Board.

Anti-fraud resources: