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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: "Grace" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <gracesapatto@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2017 06:52:36 -0800
Subject: Kindly Acknowledge My Proposal Thanks...

Hello Dear,
Compliment of the season,

I know this letter will come to you as a big surprise, but I believe it is only a day that people meet and become great friends and business partners. This is a personal mail directed to you and you alone, and I request that it be treated as such. One has no doubt in your ability to handle an international business of considerable TRUST, which may form the bedrock of an extensive business partnership in the future.

My Name is Mrs. Grace Sapatto I am the Administrative manager at a vault financial & security Institution. I am contacting you based on a financial opportunity I discovered here in my Bank. It's about an abandoned sum of $32. 9M Us Dollars (Thirty Two million, Nine Hundred Thousand United State Dollars) in our save deposit vault, that belongs to one of our foreign customers, that share the same surname with you, who died on the 4th march 2009.
The banking policy can only allow the release of such funds to a benefactor through an application as next of kin to the deceased. After his death, the bank has been expecting a possible beneficiary, but no luck, this institution has exploited all its ethical possibilities in other to contact his possible relatives or inheritors, but to no success since nobody has come over for the claim of the funds for the past 5to6 years.

However, because of the international financial crises, a lot of reform has been made within the Spanish financial system; this includes the new law on succession of claims which indicates a duration in which such inheritance could be tolerated.

Our Central Bank has mandated our institution to release the funds to the inheritor. Failure to respond to this ultimatum would legally allow the Central Bank to confiscate the funds as unclaimed funds (Which of course would go straight to the Government's pocket). It is therefore upon this entire discovery that I have decided to contact you.

I want you to know that I am a senior member of this office. As an insider, I am equipped with all classified secret information regarding the release of these funds. I would dedicate to make sure that I feed you with all possible documentation and information required for the approval and release of these funds.

Upon your acceptance to cooperate, I agree that 40% of this money will be for you, while 60% for me as the principal. For time difference and confidential reasons, I strongly advice that you should get back to me via my private email address: (gracesapatto@hotmail.com) with your contact details immediately you acknowledge the receipt of this mail, so that I would be able to give you a call to inform you on how this could be concluded in a couple of weeks.

In conclusion, it's my concern to demand your ultimate honesty, co-operation and confidentiality to enable us conclude this transaction

Regards,
Mrs. Grace Sapatto

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