How do I recognise and avoid advance-fee fraud?
If receiving money, an inheritance, a prize, or a business deal requires you to pay fees first, it is advance-fee fraud — there is no money, and every payment leads to a request for another.
Last reviewed: 10 June 2026
Explanation
Advance-fee fraud — also known by its Nigerian variant '419 fraud' — is one of the oldest and most consistently successful scam formats because the logic of paying a small fee to receive a large sum is superficially plausible. The formats are varied: a foreign official needs help moving funds and offers you a share; a lawyer informs you of an unclaimed inheritance from a distant relative; an investment requires a processing fee before your returns can be released; or a prize requires a customs payment before delivery.
In every case, the structure is the same: the promised large payment always remains just out of reach, separated from you by one more fee. Taxes, legal fees, customs charges, bank processing costs, and anti-money-laundering compliance fees arrive in sequence. Each is presented as the final obstacle. Victims who engage deeply may pay many fees over months, sometimes corresponding with multiple fictitious personalities who reinforce the narrative.
The emotional hook is both greed and, later, the sunk-cost fallacy — having paid substantial fees, stopping feels like losing everything already invested. Scammers actively exploit this by referencing previous payments and framing a continued commitment as 'almost there.' An objective outside view — telling a trusted person the full story — almost invariably reveals the scam immediately, which is why scammers often encourage secrecy.
There is also a secondary fraud within this category: recovery scams. Victims of advance-fee fraud are sometimes re-contacted by someone claiming to be a lawyer or government official who can recover the lost funds — for a fee. This is another scam layered on top of the first.
Common red flags
- Unexpected windfall requiring an upfront fee before you can receive the money
- Inheritance notification from a lawyer you have never heard of
- Government official or business contact needing help moving funds in exchange for a commission
- Each payment is followed by a request for one more payment before release
- Urgency and secrecy — told not to tell family or friends
- Recovery offer from someone claiming to help previous fraud victims — for a fee
What to do now
- Do not pay any fee in advance of receiving money — legitimate windfalls do not work this way
- Tell a trusted friend or family member the full story and ask for their honest assessment
- Report advance-fee fraud to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and your local police
- If you already paid fees, do not pay further regardless of how plausible the next obstacle seems
- Be aware of recovery scams offering to retrieve already-lost money — for a fee
Frequently asked questions
Why does advance-fee fraud still work despite being so well-known?
It works because the formats evolve constantly, the promised amounts are large enough to justify apparent risk, and the scam is structured to exploit the sunk-cost fallacy once any payment has been made. Awareness of '419 letters' does not protect against newer formats that do not resemble them.
What is a recovery scam?
A recovery scam targets people who have already lost money to fraud. The scammer poses as a law firm, asset recovery specialist, or government agency that can retrieve your lost funds for an upfront fee. No fee will ever retrieve your money — this is another advance-fee scam.