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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: Thompson Crane <admin@kenthomes.in>
Reply-To: Thompson Crane <thompsoncrane3@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2018 06:24:16 +0530 (IST)
Subject: Treat as Confidential




Hello,

First I must apologize for coming at you via this medium since we have never met nor had prior discussion or communication whatsoever. It is due to the nature of the issue at hand, I beg your pardon.

My name is Thompson Crane. I am an executive working with a Finance and Security company with offices in the USA, Europe and Africa. There is in our care the sum of $8.000.000.00 (Eight Million United States Dollars) contained in 8 boxes, $1Million each, lodged in one of our African offices. The money belonged to a client now deceased. He had an auto accident and was in coma for months. He was taken off life support in December of 2017 after Doctors indicated a near zero chance of recovery. He has since been cremated.

His will was executed in February and no mention of the money in our care. The records at my office show no next of kin as you would call it, in our terms it is referred to as POD i.e. Pay-on-death, none was indicated. This is not unusual with young clients as he was 44 at the time of passing. No one has come forward to claim the fund and as it appears that no one will. We are mandated by law to remit the said funds to the Government by the end of the April. 

As there are many other people on the internet, I would like to think fate and destiny has brought us together. I hereby seek your consent to present you as the next of kin/POD of the deceased and implore you to work with me so we can claim the money. The total sum of Eight Million Dollars will be released to you and then we can split as follows: 60% for me and 40% for you. I guarantee you that this will be executed to protect you and I from any breach of the law. 

I look forward to your favorable response as time is not on our side. Thanks and God bless.

 
Yours Sincerely,
Thompson Crane.

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