This is an example of the advance fee scam, also known as the 419 scam.

The message claims to be from US Bank which does not exist.

The actual email sender uses a gmail address which is obviously unsittable for any genuine business, so its an obvious scam.

The title of the message is “REF:- INSTRUCTION TO CREDIT YOUR ACCOUNT WITH THE SUM OF (US$5Million)” and the message is all about a massive payment due to me because I have been cheated by Nigerian scammers and I must send my contact details so they can release the funds to me.

“After due vetting and evaluation of your file that was sent to us by the Nigerian Government in conjunction with the Ministry of Finance and Central Bank of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This bank has an instruction to see to the immediate release of the sum of (US$5Million) of your claim that has been holding since is transferred into your bank Account from their Domiciliary Account with this bank.”

All rubbish of course and this scammer has made very little effort to present a viable story.

Will people reply? It is likely that some will and they may just want to know about the supposed payment or may believe it will happen, but sadly the only result will be small charges to be paid and the large payment never happens.

The message asks for contact name, address, telephone numbers, email addresses, occupation etc – all useful information for the scammers to sell to other criminals to enable identity theft.

It’s sad that scammers still try this and even more sad that people still fall for these stupid scams.

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