Advance-fee scam

The advance-fee scam is one of the oldest confidence games on record — its modern email form ("Nigerian prince," "419") goes back to the 1980s, but the underlying mechanic is in 16th-century letters. The structure is always: a stranger promises you a large future payment, and asks you to pay an upfront cost to unlock it.

The promised payment can be framed as an inheritance, a lottery, a sweepstakes, a government grant, a class-action settlement, a partnership stake, a refund, or a forgotten account. The mechanic is identical: nothing arrives, but the fees keep coming.

The opening contact arrives by email, SMS, WhatsApp, or even physical mail. A typical version:

"Dear Beneficiary, this is to inform you that your name has been selected from a pool of 50,000 applicants to receive a settlement of $3,750,000 USD from the United Nations Compensation Program. To release the funds, you must first pay the courier insurance of $498 via Western Union to the agent listed below..."

A "lawyer," "banker," "official," or "courier" walks you through the steps. Each step adds another fee — courier insurance, anti-money-laundering certificate, processing tax, local taxes, customs charge. The fees grow as you commit.

• A windfall you did not apply for or enter.
• An upfront fee, tax, or charge required to receive the larger amount.
• Pressure to keep the matter confidential ("don't tell your bank, they'll charge you fees").
• Communication primarily over email, WhatsApp, or messaging apps — not via your country's official channels.
• Documents that look official but contain grammatical errors a real US/UK/EU lawyer wouldn't make, or use incorrect agency names.
• The country named (Nigeria, the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, "diplomatic courier") is exotic relative to where you live.
• Anyone asking for a copy of your passport, driver's license, or bank statements as part of "verifying" your identity.

• Inheritance. "A distant relative died and left you their estate. We need legal fees to process it."
• Forgotten account. "We located a dormant account in your name at [bank]. Pay the reactivation fee."
• Settlement check. "You're entitled to compensation from [breach / lawsuit]. Pay the processing fee."
• Lottery / sweepstakes. "You won $X — pay the taxes upfront before we release it."
• Romance + business proposal. A romance contact ends up needing your help to "move funds" out of a country.
• Diplomat / contractor stranded. "I'm a US contractor in Afghanistan, my funds are frozen, help me move them."
• Charity bequest. "A widow / pastor wants to donate her late husband's wealth and needs a US partner."

1. Look up the supposed agency and call its main switchboard. Don't use numbers from the email.
2. Know the rule: no US government agency, lottery, court, or legitimate bank requires advance payment to release a legitimate award.
3. Verify any business or law firm via state bar registration, business filings, or your country's equivalent.
4. Ask the sender a question only the real person would know. If they're claiming to be a relative or lawyer for one, ask details only the family knows.
5. Don't pay to find out. If the only way to confirm the windfall is real is to send money, the windfall is not real.

• Contact your bank or wire service immediately. Some wires can be recalled if reported within hours.
• If you sent gift cards, contact the card issuer. Unredeemed cards can sometimes be cancelled.
• If you shared ID documents, monitor your credit and consider a free credit freeze at all three US bureaus.
• File a report with the FTC and IC3.
• Block the sender across all channels. Engagement only burns time and risks escalation.

• Do not send "one more fee" hoping to unlock the funds. The fees only grow.
• Do not engage with a "recovery agent" who appears shortly after — see the recovery-scam page.
• Do not share copies of your passport, driver's license, SSN, or bank statements with strangers online.
• Do not wire money to an "escrow agent" in a country you cannot easily verify.

• FTC: reportfraud.ftc.gov — the broadest US fraud intake; reports flow to thousands of law-enforcement agencies.
• FBI IC3: ic3.gov — the right destination when the scam is internet-enabled (phishing, BEC, romance, crypto).
• CFPB: consumerfinance.gov/complaint — for complaints about banks, money transmitters, payment apps, credit cards, debt collection.
• IdentityTheft.gov — if any identity information (SSN, driver's license, account credentials) was shared.
• Your bank or payment platform. Call the number on the back of your card or use the app's in-product help. Time matters — wires can sometimes be recalled within hours; ACH and Zelle are harder but worth trying.

Why is this scam called "419"? Section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code covers obtaining goods by false pretenses. The 1980s wave of advance-fee fraud originated from West Africa and inherited the section number as shorthand. The pattern itself predates Nigeria and is now run from many countries.

The email used my real full name and address. Doesn't that mean it's real? Personal info is widely available from data breaches, voter rolls, and public records. Personalization is now standard in scam emails. It is not evidence of legitimacy.

Can I lose more than the fee I paid? Yes. Victims often pay several rounds of escalating fees, share ID documents that enable identity theft, or are recruited as unwitting money mules and face criminal charges themselves.