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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: "DARRAN COLLINS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <darran-collins@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2018 10:10:47 +0100
Subject: From Darran Collins,

From Darran Collins,
Phone: +447761710530
 
 
 
Please pay attention and understand my aim of e-mailing you today, my name is Darran Collins, Project Analyst, enterprise finance guarantee at NatWest Bank plc. London. I ask your consideration to this transaction with utmost confidentiality. Being a top executive at NATWEST Bank, I discovered a numbered account with a credit balance of £12,700,000 .00 (Twelve Million, Seven Hundred Thousand British Pounds) which belongs to one of our deceased customers (Renato Ribeiro) a Brazilian Millionaire who died during  Brazil landslide January 2010. Due to my position at the bank, I have secret details and necessary contacts to claim these funds without any hitch. I only need your HELP as a foreigner to assume the beneficiary, because my position as a civil servant and a staff of the bank does not permit me or my relatives to make this claim. Therefore, I want you to stand as the “Foreign Beneficiary", and I assure you of a perfect transfer strategy in your name legally to avoid any susp icion.
 
 
You will earn 40% of the entire sum for your participation in this great financial deal, Upon consideration of this proposal, I request (Your full name, Contact address and your direct telephone/fax number) to enable me re-profile the fund in your name as the beneficiary, for the bank to release and transfer the fund to any of your nominated bank account. Considering the volume of discretion required for success of this project, i ask your reply to my private email: darran-collins@hotmail.com, and you are free to call me on my phone number above for clearer explanations.
 
 
Thanking you in anticipation of your immediate reply.
 
 
Yours truly,
 
 
Darran Collins,
Project Analyst, Enterprise
finance guarantee
NatWest Bank Plc. London

Anti-fraud resources: