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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: Western Union Transfer <oficex@outlook.com>
Reply-To: Western Union Transfer <western_union301@live.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2017 02:24:38 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Dear Customer, Base on the instruction passed to this western union department from the office of the New Government of the Central Bank regarding to the Easter bonus which your email id was among, Are you ready to pick up the $5,000.00 USD sent today? We have concluded to effect your payment through Western Union $5,000.00 USD daily until the sum of $1.5M USD is completely transferred, so contact the western union agent to pick up the $5,000.00 USD now: Name: Mr. Lucky Odeh Phone: (+229) 9925 2450 Emai




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