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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: John Scott <johnscott10211@gmail.com>
Reply-To: scott.john05@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2015 06:04:54 +0100
Subject: I NEED YOUR URGENT REPLY.

LLOYD'S TSB BANK
P.O BOX 1000,
BX1 1LT ENGLAND,
UNITED KINGDOM.


HELLO: ATTENTION!!

(
GOOD NEWS )


My Name is Mr. John Scott William, I work with a private Bank here in
London UK. I want to introduce and negotiate with you a business
opportunity that exist in my office that will be of great benefit us
all. Thus I wish to transfer the sum of £75, Million Pounds from a
dormant Bank account here. Thus I would like to explain more to you on
how this large amount of fund originates.

I am a consulting auditor attached with a private Bank, I carry out
various banking Services with the bank. I am contacting you
independently concerning the outcome of our internal audit
investigation which no other one has been informed of this
communication and I have decided to intimate you with certain facts
that I believe would be of interest to you.

I am contacting you concerning a customer of the bank who had an
investment placed under the banks management 13 years ago. On May
22/1999. He is an American accountant/consultant on Oil matters of
Saudi Arabia, Late Eng Micheal David Woodson 65 years old then, he
made an investment deposit valued at £52.2 Million Pounds in this
bank, which he wished to have us turn over on his behalf.

I was the officer assigned to his case; I made numerous suggestions
in line with my duties as the de-facto chief operations officer and a
consulting investment auditor of the Private Banking Services
Department, especially given the volume of funds he wished to put
into our bank. We met on numerous occasions prior to any investments
being placed. I encouraged him to consider various growth funds with
prime ratings.

The favoured route in my advice to customers is to start by assessing
data on 600 traditional stocks and bonds managers and alternative
investments. Based on my advice, we spun the money around various
opportunities and made attractive margins for our first year of
operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at this point at
over £65.5 Million, this margin was not the full potential of the
fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments.

In August 2001, he asked that the money be liquidated because he
needed to make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in
Europe. He directed that I liquidate the funds and had it deposited
with HANDELSBANKEN, a top Swedish bank. I informed him that our bank
would have to make special arrangements to have this done and in
order not to circumvent due process, the bank would have to make a
9.5% deduction from the funds to cater for banking and statutory
charges. He complained about the charges but later came around when I
explained to him the complexities of the task he was asking of us.

I contacted my affiliate in Sweden, however, the exercise was not
carried out due to the complex nature of the task and having been
instructed again to stop further proceeding, in line with his
instructions the transfer was stopped.He told me he would use the
money thereafter upon his return from America later that week. This
was the last communication we had, this transpired around Jun 5,
2003, Four days later, information started to trickle in, that he
died in a plane crash.

On hearing about this information, the bank immediately launched an
investigation into possible surviving next of kin to alert about the
situation and also to come forward to claim his deposit. In his
bio-data form, he listed no next of kin. In the field of private
banking, opening an account means no one will know of its existence,
accounts are rarely held under a name; depositors use numbers and
codes to make the accounts anonymous.

As things stands now, there is £75, Million Pounds as value for his
investment. The bank has no single idea of what's the history or
nature of the deposit. They are simply awaiting instructions to
release the deposit to any party that comes forward. This is the
situation. This bank has spent great amounts of money trying to track
this man's family; they have investigated for 10 Months now and have
found no known relative. The investigation has already come to an
end.

I am prepared to place you in a position and instruct the bank to
release the deposit to you as the closest surviving relation. Upon
receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you and
no more. That is, we share the proceeds 70% for me and 30% for you.
We can fine-tune this based on our interactions and with my
position/affiliate in the bank, we can get things done in a smooth
way. There is a reward for this project and it is a task well worth
undertaking. I will like to invest 50% of my shear in your Country
with your help/idea.

I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is from you
refusing to work with me and alerting the bank. I send you this mail
not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences might be,
but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that
success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. This is
the one truth I have learned from my private banking clients. Do not
betray my confidence.

So you should urgently get back to me to discuss this further, if you
know you will be capable of handling this risk free transaction. Send
me your personal telephone numbers for easy communications.

Please email me back on this mail address: ( scottjohn101@yahoo.pt )

I wait to hear from you ASAP.

Regards,

Mr. John Scott William.

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