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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: Lydia K Kones <lydiakones24@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 27 Feb 2016 08:09:34 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Dear Please I Need Your Urgent help


Greetings to you my dear one Please i want you to spare little of your time to read for i am writing this letter with tears and sorrow from my heart. If for any reason you find this mail offensive you can ignore it and do accept my apology for any inconvenience it may have cost you to read. I contact you after going through your profile and my prayers over it in my search for honest and trusted one for help. My name is Miss Lydia Kipkalya Kones, 22years old female from Kenya. I am the only daughter of Hon Dr. Kipkalya Kones the former Kenyan Road Minister who died in a plane crashed on the Tuesday 10th, June, 2008. You can read more about the crash with the link below:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/06/10/kenya.crash/index.html My suffering started after the death of my father. After the burial of my father, my stepmother and uncle conspired and sold my father's properties to foreign expert rate which they shared the money among themselves and left nothing for me. I lost my mother long time ago, and since then i have been through hard times in the hands of my step mother, it has been so tough and sufferings for me since the death of my late parents. Before my father's death, he told me that he made a fixed deposit of the sum of Seven Million Two Hundred Thousand United State Dollars ($7.200.000.00) in one of the Banks here in Burkina Faso, with my name the beneficiary, I traveled down to Burkina Faso and confirmed his statement positively from the bank, my late father also deposited Gold quality of 28+ Carat, Purity of 96.8% and Quantity 140kg under the custody of security company here in Burkina Faso all in my name and I have confirmed from the bank in Burkina Faso here on my arrival.But on my arrival at the bank, the Bank Director who I meet in person told me that my father's instruction to their bank was that the money would only be release to me when i present a foreign trustee who will assist me in the transfer process and also for the investment of the fund oversea. I am contacting you privately seeking for your help to transfer my inheritance fund into your bank account and also seek for your help  to invest my inheritance in your country as my appointed trustee as the bank request that i must present a foreign trustee for the release of my inheritance fund, the bank said that they must keep to my late father's instruction on the deposit of the fund and immediately get a foreign partner who will assist me, they shall not delay in the transfer of the fund considering my present condition over here. I have suffered lots of set back as a result of my parents death and am counting on you to rescue me from my present condition here over here and give me a better living over there in your country. At the success of the fund transfer in your account, I decide offering you 30% of the total funds as compensation for your kind help. I will be waiting for your urgent reply so that i will send you more details regarding the transfer. Please do keep this only to yourself until the fund is successfully transferred to your country. I beg you not to disclose it till i come over because i am still scared of my wicked stepmother who has threatened to kill me and have the money only to herself.  I am waiting your urgent respond and pray that God will touch your heart to help a suffering orphan like me. Sorry if you receive this letter in your spam, it is due to recent connection error here in the country.
Yours sincerelyMiss Lydia Kipkalya

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