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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Hillman Thomas <bandaheclypsy@oi.com.br>
Reply-To: hillman.thomas@aol.co.uk
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 10:12:56 +0100
Subject: REPLY WITH DETAILS


Sir,

It gives me a great deal of pleasure to write you this mail even when it
might come to you as a surprise. I hope you find it of interest.


My name is Hillman Thomas. I am the auditor with , HSBC bank United
Kingdom. I am contacting you in a non-official capacity and therefore
require your utmost confidentiality. During the course of our auditing, I
discovered a floating fund £5,700,000.00 (Five Million, Seven Hundred
Thousand Pounds) in an account opened with the bank on March 15th 2000 and
since November 2001 nobody has operated on this account again.


After going through some old files in the records, I discovered that the
owner of the account died without an [heir], hence the money has been
floating and if I do not remit this money out urgently it will be
forfeited. The owner of this account was Mr. Edward Braun, a Dutch and a
consultant/contractor with Horwath Clark Whitehill, a leading firm of
project and cost management consultants.


On further investigation, I discovered that the owner of the account died
from air disaster on November 12th, 2001 on board American Airlines Flight
#: 587 AC Type: Airbus A-300-605R Registration: N14053 at Belle Harbor,
Queens, New York. It was discovered that he died without making a will
(en-state) and all attempts to trace his next of kin were fruitless.
It was also discovered that late Mr. Edward Braun did not declare any next
of kin or relations on all his official documents, including his bank
Deposit paper work here at the bank. The total sum, £5,700,000.00 is still
in my bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal sum at
the end of each year. No one will ever come forward to claim it.


We will start the first transfer with £2,700,000.00 (Two Million Seven
Hundred Thousand Pounds). Upon successful transfer without any
disappointment from your side, we shall re-apply for the transfer of the
balance £ 3,000,000.00 (Three Million Pounds into your bank account
bringing the sum total to £5,700,000.00 (Five Million, Seven Hundred
Thousand Pounds). I am contacting you as a foreigner because this money can
only be approved to a foreigner with a valid international passport/
driver’s license and foreign account.


If this proposal is acceptable to you, I shall present you as a foreign
partner to stand in as the next of kin so that you and I can benefit from
this investment equally (i.e. 50% for you and 50% for me). I shall send you
either by fax or email a scanned copy of the HSBC Bank beneficiary’s claims
application form as well as detailed information on how this deal would be
transacted.


I guarantee that this will be executed under legitimate arrangement that
will protect us from any breach of the law, as I will use my position to
secure approvals and guarantee the successful execution of this
transaction. To commence this transaction, you would have to indicate your
interest by a return mail to my above Email address with your private
telephone number for voice contact and fax number so that I can provide you
with details and relevant documents that will help you understand the
transaction better.

Regards,
Hillman Thomas

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