Advance fee scam emails: how 419, prize and loan fee scams work

"I am the personal attorney to a late client who left US$8.5 million in a dormant account. As his next of kin, you are entitled to claim it." That is a typical opening line (an illustrative example, not a real message). Advance fee scams are among the oldest frauds on the internet, and the FBI recorded $155.9 million in advance fee losses in 2025 alone. This guide explains how they work, the many forms they take, and what to do if you or a colleague has already replied or paid.

What is an advance fee scam?

An advance fee scam is fraud where you're promised a large sum, such as an inheritance, prize, loan, grant or business deal, but must pay a fee before you can receive it. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) defines advance fee fraud in its 2025 Annual Report as when "An individual pays money to someone in anticipation of receiving something of greater value in return but instead receives significantly less than expected or nothing."

The email version is often called a 419 scam or "Nigerian prince" scam. The "419" nickname comes from section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code, which deals with obtaining property by false pretences, as a 2009 legal analysis in the Journal of Information, Law & Technology explains. Today the senders can be anywhere, and the stories range far beyond princes.

The fee is the whole point. There is no inheritance, prize or loan. Each payment is followed by a new obstacle, such as a tax, a legal fee, an anti-money-laundering certificate or a courier charge, until the victim stops paying.

How much money do advance fee scams cost?

Advance fee scams cost US victims at least hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The IC3 counts the classic advance fee scheme and two closely related types separately. Its 2025 Annual Report recorded:

Older people are hit hard. Complainants aged 60 and over reported $65,877,660 in Advanced Fee losses and $136,328,519 in Lottery/Sweepstakes/Inheritance losses in 2025, about 70% of all reported Lottery/Sweepstakes/Inheritance losses. These are only reported cases; many victims never file a complaint.

What do advance fee scam emails look like?

Advance fee scam emails share one structure: a large reward, a reason you were chosen, a need for secrecy or speed, and a small fee standing in the way. The stories vary.

Two related scams use the same mechanics and have their own guides: fake job offers, where you pay for equipment or training, and crypto investment scams, where you pay "taxes" to withdraw fake profits and later pay fake recovery firms.

A sample advance fee email

This is an example written for this guide, combining common features. It is not a real message.

From: Atty. Daniel Mensah <d.mensah.chambers@outlook.com>
Reply-To: <claims.dept.office@protonmail.com>
Subject: URGENT: Unclaimed Estate Fund - Your Surname

Dear Beneficiary,

I am contacting you regarding the estate of my late client,
who shares your surname and died without naming an heir.
The bank will confiscate USD $8,500,000 unless a relative
comes forward within 14 working days.

I propose we share the funds 50/50. This transaction is
fully legal and risk-free. Please treat this as strictly
confidential and reply with your full name, phone number
and occupation.

Notice the Reply-To that differs from the From address, the free webmail accounts, the promise that it's legal and risk-free, and the request for secrecy. If you want to inspect a real message, paste its headers into the Email Header Analyzer. Our guide to Reply-To mismatches explains why the reply address matters.

Why are advance fee emails so obviously fake?

Advance fee emails are often deliberately implausible, because the story filters out people who would never pay. In a 2012 Microsoft Research paper, Cormac Herley argued that scammers face a cost for every reply that goes nowhere. "By sending an email that repels all but the most gullible the scammer gets the most promising marks to self-select."

That has two consequences. First, laughing at the obvious ones doesn't make you safe from the polished ones aimed at businesses, such as fake loan offers and grant notices. Second, the people most likely to reply are often older, isolated or in financial trouble. If a relative or colleague has started corresponding with a "barrister" or "bank officer," step in early.

What are the red flags of an advance fee scam?

Use this checklist. One flag is a reason to stop; two or more is a scam.

1. You must pay to receive. The FTC's rule for prizes applies to all of these: "If you have to pay to get your prize, it's a scam."
2. Money you didn't expect. An inheritance from a stranger, a lottery you never entered, a grant you never applied for.
3. A guarantee. The FTC says legitimate lenders "won't promise or guarantee you a loan or credit before you apply."
4. Secrecy. "Strictly confidential," "don't tell your bank."
5. Hard-to-trace payment. Wire transfers, gift cards, cryptocurrency or payment apps. The FTC lists these as the methods prize scammers push.
6. Free webmail for an official role. A "bank director" or "government agent" writing from a free mailbox. The SBA's Inspector General notes that the "SBA only communicates from email addresses ending in @sba.gov."
7. A request for personal details first. Name, phone, ID, bank account. This is also how identity theft starts.
8. A deposit that arrives first. A check or transfer, followed by a request to send part of it back.

How do advance fee scams target businesses?

Advance fee scams target businesses with financing, grants and overpayments, because those requests look like normal business.

• Loan and financing offers. Small businesses short on cash get emails promising guaranteed funding after a "processing fee." The FTC says real lenders can charge an application fee, "But nobody legit will tell you that paying a fee guarantees that you'll get a loan." For SBA loans, the SBA OIG says to suspect fraud if someone promising approval "requires any payment up front."
• Grant notices. Emails announcing a government grant that only needs a release fee. The SBA OIG says: "Don't believe anyone who promises a disaster grant in return for payment."
• Overpayment from a "customer." A new buyer pays by check for more than the invoice and asks you to refund the difference. The FTC explains that "By law, banks have to make deposited funds available quickly," but "Fake checks can take weeks to be discovered and untangled." When the check bounces, you're "stuck paying the money back to the bank."

Finance and front-desk staff see these most. They're also the people who handle fake invoices and vendor payment redirection, so cover all three in one training session.

What should you do if you replied to or paid an advance fee scammer?

Stop all contact, then protect your money and identity.

1. Stop replying. Don't send any more money, whatever new reason is given. There will always be another fee.
2. Try to reverse payments. Contact your bank, wire service, payment app or gift card issuer straight away, tell them the payment went to a scammer and ask for a refund. The sooner you ask, the better your chances.
3. Don't spend a check you were sent. Tell your bank it may be fake, and don't send any part of it back.
4. Protect your identity. If you shared your Social Security number, ID or bank details, visit IdentityTheft.gov for a recovery plan and consider a credit freeze.
5. Report it. File at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and at ic3.gov, and include the email addresses and payment details.
6. Expect a recovery scam. Anyone who contacts you offering to get your money back for a fee is almost certainly part of the same fraud.
7. At work, tell IT. If you replied from a work account, the scammer now knows the address is live and may target it with other scams.

Can email filtering stop advance fee scams?

Email filtering stops most bulk advance fee emails, because they reuse the same stories, phrases and sending infrastructure across huge campaigns. Content analysis, sender reputation and blocklists such as Spamhaus all help. See how spam filters work and why you get so much spam.

The ones that slip through are short, personal-looking messages from new free webmail accounts, often just "Are you available? I have a proposal." Those have nothing technical to block, so the defense is people:

• Tell staff never to reply to unsolicited offers of money, even to say "no." A reply confirms the address.
• Route unexpected checks and overpayments to finance, with a rule that nothing is refunded until the original payment has fully cleared and been verified with the bank.
• Give users a report button and review what they report.

Next steps

1. Share the red-flag checklist above with finance, reception and anyone who handles a public contact address.
2. Add a rule to your payments process: no refunds of overpayments until the bank confirms the original payment cleared.
3. Talk to older relatives about inheritance and prize emails, and offer to check any they receive.
4. Check how much reaches your users. iBlockSpam filters inbound mail for the whole domain and holds suspicious messages in a quarantine with digests, so staff can review them without opening them in the inbox.

Browse our other phishing and threat guides.