419 Scams are also known as Advance fee Scams or Advance Fee Fraud. The most popular variant of such scams are the Inheritance Scam and Lottery Scam. The Inheritance Scam is covered in this category, while Lottery Scam is covered in a category on its own.

In general, the scammer in a 419 scam makes up a story about a large sum of money (fake) that does not exist in reality.

In the case of Inheritance Scam (which is what this category will cover), someone rich has died leaving behind a huge sum of money. The scammer will request to transfer the money out of their country with your help, e.g. coming forward to pretend to be the next of kin.

In the process, they will request money from you first to cover some legal fees, bank fees, transfer fees, or whatever they can think of. This fee is called the "Advance Fee" and hence the scam was known as Advance Fee Scam. After you have paid the fees, you can forget about seeing that large sum of fake cash.

The scammers will disappear with your money, and may even use your personal information for identity theft. This is commonly known as "Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud (419)".