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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: "THOMAS BELLO ESQ." <thomas.belloesq2000@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2017 08:46:56 +0000
Subject: CLAIM

Dear Sir,

How are you and your family?

I believe you received my letter in your best mood today; my name is
Mr. THOMAS BELLO, Head of UNION TOGOLAIS DE BANQUE SA. I decided to
seek a confidential co-operation with you in the execution of the deal
described here-under for both of us mutual benefit and hope you will
keep it a top secret because of the nature of the transaction, During
the course of our bank year auditing,

I discovered an unclaimed /abandoned fund, sum total of 22,300,000
USA DOLLARS (Twenty two million three hundred thousand USA DOLLARS) in
an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers (Late Mr.
Donald Arthur Peterson) an American who unfortunately lost his life
with his wife, in a plane crash of United Airlines Flight 93 which
crashed in Southwest Pennsylvania in September 11,2001.

After going through his file in our bank, I discovered that he did not
specify any next of kin or will beneficiary to the fund. I sincerely
seek your consent to present you as the next of kin / will beneficiary
to the deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at 22.3
Million USA DOLLARS will be disbursed to you, which we will share in
these percentage ratio; 60% for me and 40% for you.

All that I require is your sincere co-operation; trust & utmost
confidentiality to enable us conduct this transaction successfully. I
assure you that this transaction will be executed under a legitimate
arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law both in
your country and here in Lome Togo when the fund is transferred to
your bank account.

Upon consideration and acceptance of this offer, please proceed
immediately and send to me the below information,

Your Full Name,
Contact Address,
Direct Mobile/telephone Number.

This information will enable me to upload your data into our bank
database to reflect in the bank network system that you are the named
next of kin/will beneficiary of this fund, then I will guide you on
communication with the bank for onward transfer of the fund to you,
please note that we have few days to carry out this deal.

Thanks in anticipation of your urgent response.

Regards,

Mr. Thomas Bello
Head of Union Togolais De Banque.

Alternative Email: thomas.belloesq1@gmail.com

Anti-fraud resources: