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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: National Westminster Bank <noreply@mail.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Aug 2018 10:52:43 +0100
Subject: Important Mail


=

Dear Customer,
At NatWest we work hard to protect all our customer accounts and personal =
information's. That's why, from time to time, we ask for additional securit=
y verification when you attempt certain activities on our web page.
While performing customers account maintenance and verification procedures=
, we have detected a slight error on your account personal information's. W=
e have been trying to contact you. However, we are unable to reach you.
To ensure the integrity of our online banking system & to protect all cust=
omers personal information's and financial assets against unauthorised use=
at no cost. we have temporarily restricted access to your account and cert=
ain features within our online banking system. Such as (Receive payments, M=
ake payments or withdraw funds). Until your identity has been confirm.
Due to this, In-order to safeguard your account & to ensure that your serv=
ice is not interrupted, You are now require to complete our account Identit=
y Verification Process, this should only take you a few minutes to complete=
and will help us in safeguarding your account & personal information's fro=
m unauthorised access in future. Click on the Log in button to get started.
Login
If your account information is not confirmed and verified within a certain=
period of time then your ability to access your account would become restr=
icted.
How does it work?
If we detect a sign in attempt with your user name from an unrecognized de=
vice we may decide that we want to confirm that it's really you. You must c=
omplete all steps otherwise you will not be able to use the online service.
We appreciate your business and the opportunity to serve you.

Anti-fraud resources: