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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: "Ecobank" (may be fake)
Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 13:12:06 +0100
Subject: Transaction Notification


Dear Customer,

Please find attached, notification of a transaction which has just occurred on your Ecobank account. You can save, view and print this transaction notification at your convenience. It is in adobe acrobat PDF format.

Kindly note that this is an automatically generated mail. Please do not reply to this address. If you have any questions, or wish to amend your details, kindly phone our Contact Center on (233) 302 213999 or 0800 30000 or email us at ecobankenquiries@ecobank.com

Please call our Contact Centre on telephone number +234 302 213999 should you require further information
Thank you

We thank you for your continued patronage.

Yours sincerely,
Ecobank, the Pan African Bank
www.ecobank.com

Anti-fraud resources: