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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: "Mr. Jonathan Beard" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <jonathanbeardciti2010@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2015 23:36:44 +0100
Subject: Re: DID YOU AUTHORIZE MRS ANNETTE STILLMAN?

Fund Credit Officer Federal Reserve Bank,
33 Liberty St. New York, NY 10045-0001
 
Attn:
 
We apologies for the delay of your payment and all the inconveniences you might have being through, while  we were having some minor problems with our payment system which in all case not meeting up with fund beneficiary payments, we apologies once again.
 
>From the records of outstanding beneficiaries payment files received from Nigerian government the country origin of your fund, you are among the beneficiaries that is due for payment. Your name was discovered as next on the list out of the 11 outstanding beneficiaries who have not yet received their payments during the 3 years tenure of the previous administration in office please bear with us for making this initial contact through email. Meanwhile, a woman came to this bank a few days ago with a letter claiming to be your true representative. Here is her information? below.
 
Name: Mrs. Annette Stillman
Bank name: Citibank , Arizona , USA .
Account Number: 6503809008
Routing number: 322271627
 
Please do reconfirm to this bank as a matter of urgency if this woman is from you or not so that the federal reserve bank will not beheld responsible for paying into wrong account, if this woman is not your representative, you are requested to fill and send this information? for verifications purpose so that your fund valued ($10.500, 000.00 usd) will be remitted into your nominated bank account.
 
Kindly reconfirm to us the following for immediate transferring of your fund to your bank account,
1) Full Name:
2) Full Address;
3) Your contact telephone and fax number;
4) Your Age and Profession;
5) Copy of any valid form of your Identification;
6) Your Bank name;
7) Your Bank Address;
8) Account name and Number;
9) ABA/Routing Number;
10) Swift or Sort Code/IBAN;
 
As soon as this information is received, your funds will be wired to your bank account directly from Federal Reserve Bank New York USA .
 
Failing to reply urgently We shall proceed to issue all payments details to the said Mrs. Annette Stillman if we do not hear from you within the next three working days from today. We are sorry for any inconvenience the delay in transferring of your fund must have caused you.
 
You immediate response to this email is highly imperative.
 
 
Sincerely.
Mr. Jonathan Beard
Fund Credit Officer Federal Reserve Bank
33 Liberty St New York , NY 10045-0001

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