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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: "Adrian and Gillian Bayford" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bayford.ag@dgoh.org>
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2013 01:50:02 +0100
Subject: Accept Our Donation

Dear Friend,

This is a personal email directed to you. I and my lovely wife won a EuroMillions Jackpot Lottery of £148m EuroMillions in August last year. We have decided to donate the sum of £1,000,000.00 (One Million Pounds) to you as part of our own charity project to improve the life of 5 lucky individuals all over the world. All you have to do is reply to this email for more information.

To verify the genuineness of this email please visit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2187999/

Awaiting your urgent response.

Regards,

Adrian And Gillian Bayford

Anti-fraud resources: