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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: ECO BANK <ecobankplc.online1@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ECO BANK <ecobeninrep@outlook.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Jan 2017 02:12:29 +0900 (JST)
Subject: ONLINE BANKING TRANSFER


This is to inform you officially that we have verified your payment file and found out the reason you have not received your payment is because you have not fulfilled the obligations given to you in respect of your funds.
 
Secondly, we have been informed that you are still dealing with the none officials in the bank and all your attempts to secure the release of your fund are still in vain. We wish to advise you that such an illegal act has to stop if you wish to receive your payment since we have decided to bring a solution to your problems in receiving the funds. This idea is the latest instruction given to this bank by the Federal Ministry of Finance and Economy.
 
You are now going to receive your funds through Online Banking Transfer.
To receive your funds through online banking, you need to reply back with the following information as urgent as possible.
 
    Your full name
    Phone and fax number
    Address
    Your age and current occupation
    A copy of your identity
 
Once again, you have to stop henceforth your further communication with any other person or office regarding this transaction, this is to avoid any hitch or delay in finalizing your payment. The transfer of your total sum of $4,500.000.00 will be completed through online banking transfer as soon as possible.
The online banking information will be forwarded to you upon the receipt of your response for the urgent online transfer.

Also note that because of impostors, we hereby issue you our code of conduct, which is ECO-994 you must have to indicate this code while replying back.
 
Yours sincerely
Mr Cheikh Travaly
Executive Director
ECOBANK-Benin

Anti-fraud resources: