419 Scams

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)".

Some tips about 419 scams:

1) The sender's email address can be fake. The scammer can send the mails out using any email address via an anonymous mail server.

2) The names used in the email are fake - most of the time. There is no need to inform the police about the names, because they need more than that to find the real person behind all these.

3) The whole story is fake, including the money, dead people (if any), etc.

4) If you still insist on going ahead to try it out, please bewarned "Never Pay Money to Get Money (prize)". We assure you that at some point in the communication process, they will ask you for money. In some cases, they will also ask you for personal identity information, which can be used to scam the bank to provide them with you bank account details.

5) If you received a check from a stranger for any funny reasons, it might be a fake check. When you bank in a fake check, the bank will clear the check and deposit the cash into your account within 3 days. After that, the scammer will ask you to send the money to them. When the bank finds out that the check is fake after about 10 days, they will ask you to return the money.

Best Defense:

1) Do not respond to such emails (delete them!)

2) If you sent any sensitive personal information (e.g. Bank Acct. No., National ID Card no., Birthday, etc) to the scammers, contact the bank immediately so that they are aware of the fraud. If this is a credit card, contact your bank to terminate the card and issue a new one.

3) Inform your friends and family members, esp. the elderly, about such scams. It is too late to tell them if they have already been scammed. Prevention is better because there is no cure!

NOTE: From 12 May 09 onwards, we will be treating this section as a database collection without writing our comments about the "storyline", sender names, etc. We will not be repeating the warnings in each post so as to cut down publishing time. Please keep your post coming in.

419 Scam: Dual ATM Mastercard?

The way the email content is planned is to exploit people who are greedy or need cash urgently.

What is more attractive than someone saying "Hey, I have an ATM or Credit Card filled with free credits or money for you".

There is no free lunch.

419 Scam: Fake Hugh Jones and Associate

Scam mail from some impersonators using free email address and a 33 million dollars scam story about a dead rich men. This is a typical 419 scam. All names and organisation used in this mail are not from the originator. HUGH JONES & ASSOCIATE ...

419 Scam: Fake Mr Huang from Bank of Overseas

This is a scam. From: mrhuang@yahoo.com.twSubject: BUSINESS TRANSACTIONDate: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 21:00:53 +0800Dear Recipient,How are you today and business in your country? I am Huang,Bank Manager of bank of Overseas,Taiwan. I would respectfullyreque...

419 Scam: GOODNEWS YOUR PAYMENT VIA ATM CARD IS GAZETTED

This is a scam. > From: customer.carre@yahoo.com> Subject: GOODNEWS YOUR PAYMENT VIA ATM CARD IS GAZETTED> Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2010 03:36:26 -0800> > FEDERAL MINISTRY OF FINANCE.> CONTRACT/INHERITANCE FUND APPROVAL DEPT.> FED...

419 Scam: UNITED NATIONS OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL OVERSIGHT SERVICES

Another scammer faking to be UN. United Nations doesn't send out mails like this. All names used are fake.  From: mrsgrace.whitecat@gmail.com Subject: UNITED NATIONS OFFICE Date: Sat, 20 Feb 2010 09:08:33 -0800 To: UNITED NATIONS OFFICE OF INTERNA...

419 Scam: $35million from Fake HSBC Bank James Mark

Below is a scam and all the names/organisations stated are fake. Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:30:38 -0800From: asbde231@att.netSubject: RE,YOUR THIRTY FIVE MILLION US FUND,,,To:HSBC BANK SAVINGS AND FIDUCIARY8, CANADA SQUARE LONDON UKTel Nº: +44-704-...

419 Scam: ATM INTERNATIONAL CREDIT SETTLEMENT

All names and story about funds and ATM card etc are fake.   DR HARRISON NWAKEMBE <mdufour20thda@bellsouth.net>     Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 12:21 AMReply-To: atmpayment_card29@yahoo.com.hk ATM INTERNATIONAL CREDIT SETTLEMENTOFFICE OF THE DIRECT...

84 year old scammed and received life-threatening calls

Lorraine was scammed and "virtually robbed" by a scammer that appears to be based in Jamaica. She was told that she had won $2million USD and a new car, and all that she needs to do was to send money to Jamaica to cover the "taxes" on her winnings...

419 Scam: Another Iraq-related scam - Fake Sgt Robert Donald

These scammers are harvesting personal information of real people and using them in scam mails like this. This email is Not from the real person. The scammer is using BBC news link to convince potential victims that this is real. This is not the f...

419 Scam: Fake Standard Chartered Bank of Ghana

Fake Name: Joy Mensah
Offer Type: Money Transfer
Transfer Amount: $5.5 million only
Storyline: Just another fund transfer scam.
Location: Claims to be Ghana
Scammer Email: joy2008@saix.net

419 Scam: Fake Mamoud Salif Offers $22.5m

Fake Name: Mamoud Salif
Offer Type: Money Transfer
Transfer Amount: $22.5 million only
Storyline: A rich agricultural equipment supplier died in an aircrash. The scammer is asking you to act as the Next-of-Kin and receive the funds.
Location: Claims to be South Africa
Scammer Email: mr.mahmoud_salif@sify.com

1) This offer is a scam.

2) It is illegal to "impersonate" the next of kin.

One of our readers lost $1,668 USD in fake Ecowas Donation Grant Scam

Some people are still blinded by their greed, and always hold on to their hope that "this wonderful deal is going to be real." There is no free lunch, and if you are inexperienced (i.e. e.g., not a 419 scam baiter), never reply and "see how it goes".These scammers will try to talk you into believing that its "real", and if you don't believe it, then cancel it - all sorta rubbish when the whole story is FAKE.

419 Scam: Bank UBS AG Zurich $232million *Cough* Wow!

A scammer impersonating as a consultant working with the Swiss Bank claims that he has found $232million during one of his audit.

So he wrote,"Sometimes a person will open a bank account, deposit money, and then disappear into the tin (thin) air. Banks are not always able to find out what has become of these silent customers, or to know whether they should follow up on requests from people who claim to be heirs to the accounts..."

He is asking for "someone" to help transfer out the money "illegally". This mail is full of lies and he is not who he claims to be.

Assuming that this is real, whatever he asked you to do is illegal. So when you lose money in this scam, it is hard for you to report to the authorities/police for "being scammed while trying to help someone do something illegal."

Its like telling the police "SIR, I was trying to impersonate a Next-of-Kin/Son of some dead rich men to STEAL $232million from the bank, and I lost $25,000 of fake legal fees to this another impostor claiming to be from the bank itself....". Ouch!

Oh!? A scammer complaining about another scammer? Its tough. Don't bite the bait and become another scammer. 

Fake Story: US Army Attache Found Money at Haifa

In this latest story, someone impersonating a "Contractor" called John England found "$23.5 million" at Haifa during an inspection routine. I discovered an unusual bulge in a cellar which i presumed to be a storage room. I decided to have a go a...

419 Scam: BANK OF AMERICA ONLINE ACCOUNT SETUP INSTRUCTION

This whole scam boils down to this statement:

You have to send the sum of US$999.00 to activate your Bank of America Personal Residential Online Account, this payment will be credited to your Online account before we can fully remitted the amount value of US$10,700,000.

This is absolutely rubbish. Sometimes you just wish scammers go to hell a million times. Move on unless you have interest in reading the full attachment. If you want to hear about stories about who and what gang is doing this and that, go and try other anti-scam sites. We are not interested if they missed their breakfast this morning, all we know is scammers like this are going to hell whichever group they belong to.

And what are the reasons for this "$10.7million?

If you try to recollect, you would remember having conducted some businesses in either of the mentioned three tier regions (Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe) and the purpose of selection was randomly made by the United Nation Organization. Our bank stands out from all the presently distressed banks in United State and Northern America to enable the payment of your overdue transaction that has been pending for the past several years released.

Bags of balls. I can only remember that I dream of throwing a 419 scammer out of my window from my office at the 66th floor.

419 Scam: Its InterPol and not InterNpol - you crashed my spell checker!

419 scammers have an unmatchable competency ns creating an entirely new series of vocabulary. Some of these even caused my spell-checker to crash, and I would need to spend days to repair it - thanks to all the mis-spelling.  There is no need to a...

419 Scam: Mr.Tomo Sand Nori

This is the "Japanese" franchise of the 419 scam. There is a reason why many 419 scam mails are very short these days. 1) If the email is too long, it would sound crazy and most people could have rejected it as scam. 2) If its short, and yet SOMEB...

419 Scam: Paul William and his 1.5million crap

This scammer: 1) Email address from Yahoo Hong Kong 2) +44 UK phone number 3) +66 Thailand Phone number But he could be at a Fourth location. Even the IP address could not tell because he could be using a proxy server. Paul Williams <paulwillia...

419 Scam: Another 419 Franchisee in China - fake Lee Yang

This appears to be a scam from a Chinese guy, but we are unable to verify because it was a forwarded mail. During the trips to China in the past 2 years, we have begun to notice some black Africans at Shanghai. They might be there for business, an...

419 Scam: Fake Bank of America email - Updated

This is a targeted 419 scam mail with the addressee included inside the mail introduction. It is a fake "Bank of America", 419-type scam. The email is quite difficult to read, and they have managed to refrain from using some keywords that we often...

419 Scam: Someone is Impersonating You and Claiming Your Wealth

So says "Senator Momoh". This is just another "Pay for ATM Card Scam". All names are fake, especially the Momoh stuff.   ----- Forwarded Message ----From: Sen John Momoh <gatcam@racsa.co.cr>Sent: Sun, February 7, 2010 1:52:18 PMSubject: 7th...

Lottery Scam: Fake Diamond Bank and International Monetary Fund

This scammer just tell you that there are some money (not much, only $10million) in the bank. There are no lottery numbers, no 419 stories, but we will take it as both. All names and organisations used in this mail are fake. ----- Attached ----- D...

419 Scam: Another Fake FBI scam mail

This is an obvious scam since an email won't come from .co.za (email address). All names and story stated in this email are fakes. -----Original Message----- From: Federal Bureau Of Investigation (F.B.I) [mailto:pdpoffice3@mighty.co.za] Sent: 05 F...

419 Scam: Fake DR. IGNATIUS IMALA offers $10.5 million

Another of these 419 scam mails: ----- I received the below scam and just wanted to report it. Thank you:   DR. IGNATIUS IMALA DIRECTOR,DEBIT CARD DPT , (CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA). TEL: +234-1-7654186     ATTENTION BENEFICIARY,   YOU ARE HEREBY N...

419 Scam: I am rich and I am in a hospital in Russia...

A short scam about a "rich woman" who claims she had a dead rich husband with some 7.5million pounds in the bank. Oh, did we say she is dying too... wouldn't it be nice if we pull the plug on the life support system of this scammer and let her die...

419 Scam: Musa Akim offers $25Million

Our new anti-scam machine has detected another scam. This is the scam and spam killer machine: Surprise + Africa + Tranferring + Million + Died + Next Of Kin = Scam ----- Attached ----- musa akim <musa_akim44@live.fr>     Sun, Feb 7, 2010 a...

419 Scam: Fake Barrister Edward Douglas offers $2.5million RSVP

There is a new algorithm that goes like this: Barrister + Million Dollars + Accident + Next of Kin = Scam Its so easy to program an anti-spam solution for 419 scam mails. ----- Attached ----- Edward Chambers <edwarddouglas001@gmail.com> Su...

Nigerian Pop Star Promotes Anti-Scam Campaign on Music Video

Music against 419 Scam
Good intention, great music, by a Nigerian, against Nigerian 419 scam. 419 scam has become an international "franchise" and is no longer limited to Nigerians. Some of the scam mails we received seemed to originate from UK, Malaysia, China, etc. It...

419 Scam: FROM THE DESK OF MR AHMED ABDULLAH‏

What a typical 419 scam mail with all the famous keywords: From the desk of... ...come to you as a surprise ...abandoned fund ...keep this a secret (shhhhh....) ----- Ahmed AHdullah <ahmedabdullah3@sify.com> Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 2:14 AM Re...

419 Scam: Sawdu Bello offers $10.5m

      Mr sawdu bello <sawdu_bello01@sify.com> Fri, Feb 5, 2010 at 10:30 PM Reply-To: sawdu_bello01@sify.com To: .kamal1043@ymail.com  From: Mr Sawdu Bello Good DayAfrican Development BankBurkina Faso (ADB)Ouagadougou - Burkina Faso....