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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: "Charles Vandi." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mail2charlesvandi@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Mar 2017 09:45:00 +0100
Subject: My Old-Time Partner.

Dear Old-Time Friend,
It's been twelve years since we last communicated which made it difficult for me to retrieve your email address, I had to beg the probate office for a recall of your profile since I was unable to reactivate my old email account. Please, forgive me for not being able to reach you before now, my silence wasn't wilful; I made unrelenting efforts to give you statues of our unfinished transaction as it were, but all efforts were to no avail.
 
It is with great pleasure to inform you that my attempt to make you the Next of-Kin of certain amount of money that was domiciled in a foreign bank was later accomplished with the assistance of a Chinese partner. I totally understood that your reservations as at that time were as a result of the skepticism of the inadequacies of unsolicited cyberspace businesses. However, I still appreciate the efforts your made at the preliminary stage of the transaction that did propel the swift release of the funds.
 
If you would remember that our arrangement was to invest part of the funds in your country once the fund has been warehoused in the custody of your bank; eleven years down the line, I've successfully grown an empire from my little beginning as a mainstream petroleum marketer, and today I am a joint owner of three Oil Wells both In Nigeria and Carbon and I have West African Diamond exporting franchise which is my core investment.
 
My conscience will not be at rest until I express my heartfelt gratitude to you as a pioneer facilitator in my success story today. I hereby plead with you to contact my special assistant whom I have instructed to include the name of your organization In my corporate philanthropy programmes where you will be receiving about $1 Million on a quarterly basis to support your activities. You may email him and direct further inquires to him as he is looking forward to hearing from you.
 
Contact Name: Adebolaji Cole.
Email: adebolajicole@yahoo.com
 
Thanks for your understanding.
Cheers!!
Charles Vandi.

Anti-fraud resources: