Advance fee
A payment demanded before a promised benefit is released — a prize, an inheritance, a loan, a job, or your own money.
The advance fee is the oldest structure in fraud, and it is still the most common single tell. It appears in prize scams (a tax on your winnings), inheritance scams (legal fees), loan scams (an insurance payment), job scams (equipment or training), and at the end of investment scams (a withdrawal tax).
The test is mechanical and does not require you to judge anyone’s honesty: a fee that must be paid from outside a balance you are told you already have is proof the balance is not there. A real institution deducts fees from your funds.
Where it shows up
- Advance fee and 419 scams — A large sum that is nearly yours, held up by one more payment that is always the last one.
- Prize, lottery and sweepstakes scams — You have won something you never entered, and there is one fee left before it can be released.
- Recovery scams — The second scam, aimed at the people the first one already took — and it arrives knowing exactly what you lost.