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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: "UNITED BANK OF AFRICA" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <johnmartins384@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 16:58:56 -0500
Subject: CONTACT HIM FOR YOUR ATM CARD

Good day,

You must act very urgently to this message. I am Rev. Thomas Dah from United Bank for Africa (UBA). It has been brought to our notice that your ATM master card package valued at US$1,903,850 we dispatched to you through FedEx has yet to be delivered to you due to immigration obstacles in the USA.

Your ATM Card package left our bank on December 17th, 2013, arrived at North Salt Lake in the United States on January 21th 2014 en-route to you, but was since being held in Florida Airport awaiting clearance. Your ATM master card package tracker information is as follows:-

www.fedex.com/tracking
Tracking Number: 797676044150

Kindly track it to view status. We apologize for this delay in package delivery as we have called them and sent them the insurance clearance documentation of package that was required by the airport cargo/package security officers. It has now been approved and cleared for re-dispatch and you are to urgently contact the airport cargo/package security officer your package is with and reconfirm your delivery address to him so it can be re-dispatched to you immediately.

Send to him the following:-
1. Your full name
2. Your physical address
3. Your house phone
4. Your cell phone

Agent contact:
Cargo/package officer: Richard Andy
Email: richardandy48@gmail.com



Mr. Richard Andy informed that you are only required to act urgently. So please hurry now as your package might incur demurrage if it stays more than 3 days at the airport after this clearance.

Thank you,
Best Regards,
Rev. Thomas Dah,
United Bank for Africa (UBA)

Anti-fraud resources: