An advance-fee scam is a common form of fraud in which the perpetrator promises the victim a large sum of money in exchange for a smaller upfront payment that is falsely claimed to be needed to release or obtain the larger sum. Once a victim pays, the fraudster typically invents a series of additional fees to extract further payments, or simply disappears with the money already collected. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Classification CodeIn Nigeria the offense is commonly called a 419 scam after section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code, which addresses fraud generally. In 2004 Nigeria established the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission specifically to combat advance fee fraud. In the United States it is prosecuted under federal wire fraud statutes rather than a dedicated advance fee offense code. 1 Typical PenaltyUnited States prosecutions have produced sentences such as two years in prison plus five years of supervised probation in the Edna Fiedler cheque scam case from 2008. Outcomes vary widely by jurisdiction and by how much of the proceeds moved through prosecutable channels. 1 Elements of OffensePromising the victim a large sum of money in exchange for a small upfront payment, which the fraudster falsely claims is needed to release, transfer or unlock the larger amount, with no genuine large sum ever existing. 1 Notable ExampleJames Adler of San Diego lost more than five million dollars to the scheme. Although a United States court found that Nigerian officials had been involved, he recovered nothing under the unclean hands doctrine. In 2008 Edna Fiedler was sentenced in the United States to two years in prison plus five years of supervised probation for a one million dollar cheque scam. 1 Jurisdiction VariationDocumented cases originate from or are prosecuted across Nigeria, the Netherlands, Spain, Ivory Coast, Togo, South Africa and Jamaica among others. Nigeria targets the offense specifically through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, established in 2004, while other countries rely on general fraud statutes. 1 Classification
Offense GradeMinor or Summary Offense 1 Connections
Has Offense Grade
Entity-backed identity for the offense-grade enum value this offense already carries, resolved to a crime concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The offense-grade fact itself stays on the offense unchanged.
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Africa, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: Europe, found in there.
- Also in Geography Atlas: North America, found in there.
Sources
1. Advance-Fee Scam (Wikipedia)
Wikipedialead paragraphQuote, lead paragraph
An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and is a common scam. The scam works by promising the victim a large sum of money in return for a small upfront payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum.
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