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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: "Maria Gomez" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <un_compensation.office@citromail.hu>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2016 02:05:01 -0700
Subject: Dear Friend

Hello,
 
What have kept you from claiming your $5,000,000.00 USD issued out to you as a compensation award notification. Your email is here in our compensation list and you are urgently needed to reply with your information to enable us forward it to the bank where the fund will be safely posted and await you being the beneficiary to claim it. Get back to me immediately you receive this mail to avoid error procedures.
 
Name:
Address:
Age:
Phone Numbers:
Occupation:
Copy of International passport/Driver's licence.
 
 
Regards,
Maria Gomez

Anti-fraud resources: