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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: James Williams <williamsjames71@outlook.com>
Reply-To: <mr.james_w@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2015 16:27:15 +0000
Subject: VERY URGENT




Greetings,

My name is James Williams, a male of 23 years old and a 3rd year student of UNIVERSITY OF GHANA. My father was in the Precious Stone industry and owned mines in Tanzania, He also used to deal (buy and sell) in diamonds from Angola, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo (former Zaire). It is sad to say that he died of the deadly Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome - AIDS on the 15th July, 20010. Two days after my father was pronounced HIV positive, my mother Committed suicide.

Now, I can no longer walk freely on the streets, at school or even in the church without being pointed at or gossiped about. This development has affected me academically, physically and Psychologically and I have decided to come over to your country where I Would have peace to live and further my education and have contacted you to assist me to transfer out the sum of $US 7.5Million which my father deposited with Safety security company for my upkeep when it became Obvious he was going to die.

I intend to invest this money in your business or any other business you deem healthy. However I will appreciate if you keep my letter confidential or delete if you do not accept my proposal, you will be rewarded with 40% of the total funds for your efforts, so send your full details to my email:

Thanking you in anticipation

James Williams


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