419 Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam (2006-01)

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "huge amount of money" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "million united state dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- mr.adamaouedraogoinfo@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. Adama Ouedraogo" <alialassane3@aol.fr>
Date: Thu, 13 Oct 2016 12:54:51 -0400
Subject: Greetings/ Please read carefully and quickly reply me on this email
(mr.adamaouedraogoinfo@gmail.com)

From: Mr. Adama Ouedraogo,
Manager: Audit and Accounts.
Islamic Development Bank,
Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Dear Friend,
Good day and thank you for the attention given to me by taking out time to read my letter, I really appreciate that. I am the above mentioned person with said office position. I'm contacting you in respect of a business deal which I intend to carry out with a deal-minded foreigner. There is an account here in our bank with a credit balance of twenty one million united state dollars, US$21.million. As I talk to you now, this said account is without a beneficiary or heir. This means that the money presently does not belong to anybody. I have explored all options and decided to execute this deal with a foreigner who can strike the deal with me by receiving this huge amount of money in his/her foreign bank account and take 40% of it. I will send you more details about this deal and the procedures to follow when I receive a positive response from you on my private e-mail address (mr.adamaouedraogoinfo@gmail.com).

Note that you might receive this message in your inbox or spam or junk folder depends on your web host or server network.

Yours Sincerely,
Mr. Adama Ouedraogo.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam