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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: "Mr David Brown" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dbdaviddbrownn@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2014 10:15:31 -0700
Subject: Looking forward to hearing from you

Good Day
 
This is to remind you that your fund USD$5,500,000.00 has been approved for your payment. We are contacting you to re-confirm your account coordinates, so that we will NOT make wrong transfer of your fund and we would not be held liable due to wrong disbursement of your fund.However we received an email from one MR CHARLES E. MATSON, 2- 9225 Leslie Street, Richmond Hill Ontario, L4B 3H6 , who told us that he is your next of kin and that you send him to claims the funds on your behalf,the sudden change of account details is suspecious.He has also submitted his account information to our accounts/audit department for transfer of the fund to his Account as your inheritor of the fund stated herein.
 
We are now verifying by contacting your email address as we have in our Bank records before we can make the transfer into her account and for us to conclude confirmation if you are the one that send him to claim your funds? ,If you are ready to receive your first payment of usd$5.5 Million get back to me with your full details below.
Your Full Name:...................................
Contact Address...................................
Telephone Number..............................
However, you should urgently re-confirm your full receiving  details to ths email address (daviidbrownn31@yahoo.co.uk)if on the contrary,we are Looking
forward to hearing from you.
Thanks,
Yours Faithfully
Mr David Brown

Anti-fraud resources: