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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: "Dr, Frank Williams" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <drfrankwillian@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 2016 16:37:01 -0800
Subject: Hello,

ATTENTION BENEFICIARY
STATE INHERITANCE COMMITTEE IN CONJUNCTION WITH UNITED NATION, WHICH MUST
BE TREATED VERY URGENT.
In the course of our General Auditing and Account revision, we discovered
that the Bank Accounts belonging to some Benefactors have been changed on
the basis that the owners have died some time last year or have given out
an authorization note of change of data.
After the investigations however, it was revealed that there are
Foreigners who are collaborating with Retired Staffs of the bank to make
these changes illegally without the knowledge of the Bonafide Benefactors
and one traced to your own change is this Mr Allen Smith who said you are
dead, hence they have forwarded some documents of funeral service held for
you so as to divert your fund.  They have also forwarded this bank account
below as the new account that will receive this money.
Bank Name: BANK OF AMERICA
Bank Address: 2075 S. Victoria Ave Ventura, CA 93003
Bank Phone Number:  800 788-7000
Account Name: Mr. Allen Smith.
Type: Checking
ABA # 322271627
Acct # 1951204345
Amount: US$7.5 Million
But we wanted to confirm if actually this is true and hence decided to
write to your email address which after 7 days from now and there is no
response, we will then know that you are dead indeed and go on with the
transfer.
If proved otherwise by you that you are not dead as stated by this Mr
Allen Smith, please forward to us the below information
1. FULL NAME
2. PHONE AND FAX NUMBER
3. FULL CONTACT ADDRESS(P.O BOX NOT ACCEPTABLE)
4. YOUR AGE AND CURRENT OCCUPATION
5. A COPY OF YOUR IDENTIFICATION
You are also required to send to us a means of Identification which should
be a scan copy of your Driver's License or International Passport for
proper verification and authentication.
These details from you will help to assist us reach a conclusion that you
are not dead.
Anything contrary to this claim will help us charge this man to court and
prosecute him while your fund will be paid to you immediately through our
accredited payment system without any further delay to avoid
counter claim once again in the future.
We shall be expecting to receive your information, For now you have to
stop any further communication with anybody or office. On this regards, do
not hesitate to contact me via email for more details and direction, and
also please do update me if you receive any information from any Office or
anybody apart this Office.
Please get back to us now.
Dr. Frank Williams
For:STATE INHERITANCE COMMITTEE
Republic Of Ghana.

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