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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: "Barrister Donald Esq" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bdonaldesq1@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2018 12:43:48 +0530
Subject: Compliments of the season

Good day,

I am Barrister Donald Esq, personal attorney to Late Sir.Lucian Adams, who died of cardiac arrest a few years ago at ST.Mary's Hospital leaving behind a large sum of money with a commercial bank at Lagos Island. Presently, I will not mention the amount of money that is involved until we have agreed to this transaction.

I trust you will understand the need for my safety measure. I have made valuable efforts to get to my client relation but to no avail, because he did not name any of his next of kin in his fix deposit forms. Due to this development the bank has ask my Law office, since we are his personal attorney to forward his close relative to claim the funds otherwise the government will declared the fund as unclaimed.

For me it will be very unwise to allow my client fruit of Labor to be declared as unclaimed fund and to avert this negative development my colleagues and I have decided to look for a reputable person to act as the next of kin/ Business partner so that the funds could be processed in your name as the next of kin and that is why I contacted you.

My Law office will also stand as your personal attorneys and all legal documents to back you in claiming this fund will be provided by us. Your help will be appreciated based on the total amount / percentage two of us will agree in my next email upon your willingness to do this transaction with me. Contact directly to my E-mail ( bdonaldesq1@gmail.com )

I await your reply.

Yours Faithfully,
Barrister Donald,Esq
Respond To E-mail: bdonaldesq1@gmail.com

Anti-fraud resources: