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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: "FRED" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <963fgoldberg@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2014 19:19:33 -0800
Subject: INFO

Hello,

Compliments of the season, I am Mr. Fred Goldberg. I am sure that you will be surprise to receive my mail. Please I have a business proposal which will interest you and I have been searching for a capable person that I can entrust this transaction to, before I found you. Reply back to me for further details because I want to share my proposal with you
confidentially.

My Email is 963fgoldberg@gmail.com
I am looking forward to your urgent response.
Thanks,

Fred Goldberg

Anti-fraud resources: