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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: Paul Patten <neiltrotter.winner@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ppatten939@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2015 09:46:05 +0100
Subject: GOOD NEWS

Hello,

I received the check for $11.5 million from your client late last
week and I placed it in my bank account, due to weekend The bank has
just called me to advise the money is cleared and available for
withdrawal.

In the meantime I checked with both the money transfer services -
Western Union and Money gram, and they do not send funds to
Nigeria,west Africa from this country anymore and they would not tell
me why that is the case. They cannot send this large an amount at all
anywhere in the world. The nearest office would be a couple of hours
drive from me in any case and I would be unable to leave work to do
that, whereas the bank is only a five minute walk.

Therefore can you please supply the bank account information you said
you would supply. I need the account information where I am to
transfer this money to immediately so I can print it out and take it
to the bank with me when I send the funds. I would like to do it today
or tomorrow at the latest.

I am in meetings for the rest of today so it will be difficult to
reach me on the telephone but I will check my email every hour to see
if you have sent the information I need. If yes, I'll excuse myself to
run down and transfer the money.

The bank advised the funds will be transferred immediately so you will
have your money within an hour of sending me the info, providing you
get it to me before the bank closes. It's now just before 9am so you
have about 7-8 hours to get back to me today.

Thank you for everything you have done and I am looking forward to
spending my commission!

Thanks & Best Regards,

Paul Patten

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