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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.

Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.

Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "Patrick Lawson" <info_plawson05@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: info_patricklawson@yahoo.co.in
Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 13:30:12 +0000
Subject: Hello

FROM MR.PATRICK LAWSON

TEL: +233 208282006

Greetings from Ghana!

Before I introduce myself, I wish to inform you that this letter is not a
hoax mail and I urge you to treat it serious. This letter must come to you
as a big surprise, but I believe it is only a day that people meet and
become great friends and business partners.

My name is Mr. Patrick Lawson, the present branch Manager of a bank here in
Ghana. I write you this proposal in good faith, believing that I can trust
you with the information I am about to reveal to you. Like I said, I have a
transaction that will benefit both of us, as your assistance is required as
a foreigner. I use to head the Accounts department in my bank head office,
but last December I was asked to take position of a Manager of our branch in
Kumasi who passed on, so that was how I became the present Manager and
discovered a fortune. As I resumed duty, I discovered an account with total
sum of $12,500,000 million that has not been operated on for the past 4
years. From my investigation, I found out that this account belongs to one
Late Mr. ANDREAS SCHRANNER a German great industrialist and a resident of
Munich, who unfortunately lost his life along with his entire famillies in
the plane crash of CONCORDE AIRLINE [Flight AF4590 ] which crashed on 25th
JULY, 2000.

You shall read more news about the crash on visiting this site, which I got
during my investigation; http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm.

The account is escrow call account, a secret type of account in my bank and
no other person knows about this account or any thing concerning it, the
account has no other beneficiary. I have kept a close monitoring of the
account since then and nobody has come forward to ask about the money as
next of kin to the late Mr. Andreas Schranner, meaning that no one is aware
of the account.

I cannot directly take out this money without the help of a foreigner and
that is why I am contacting you for an assistance to claim the funds and
share it with me. As the Manager of my bank branch, I have the power to
influence the release of the funds to any foreigner that comes up as the
next of kin to the account, with the correct information concerning the
account, which I shall give you.

I am seeking your co-operation to present you as the next of kin to the
account, so that my bank head quarters will release the funds to you. There
is practically no risk involved, the transaction will be executed under a
legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law. If you
accept to work with me, I want you to state how you wish us to share the
funds in percentage, so that both parties will be satisfied. Contact me as
soon as you receive this message if you feel we can work together, so we can
go over the details.

Thanking you in advance and may God bless you. Please, treat with utmost
confidentiality. I wait your urgent response. You can as well contact me by
phone the number is +233 208282006.

Regards,

Mr. Patrick Lawson.

_________________________________________________________________
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