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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.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Steven John" <stev_john14@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: steven_johnreal@myway.com
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2006 19:44:36 +0000
Subject: Re.To Steven John.I Need Your Help.

Dearest,

I am Mr. Steven John,a manager in the Bills and Exchange at
the Foreign Remittance Department of one of the leading
banks in Ghana. I am writing this letter to ask for your
support and cooperation to carry out this business
opportunity in my department.

We discovered an abandoned sum of$12,500,000.00 (Twelve
Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars only)
in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer
Mr.Paul Philip who died along with his entire family a wife
and two children in November 1999 in an auto crash.

Since we heard of his death, we have been expecting his
next-of-kin to come over and put claims for his money as
the heir,because we cannot release the fund from his
account unless someone applies for claim as the
next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking
guidelines.Unfortunately, neither their family member nor
distant relative has everappeared to claim the said fund.It
is in our banking guideline that if none of the relatives
come up to claim this fund after 6years of the death of the
late customer,the fund will be regarded as an unclaimed
bill and will be transferred to the bank's treasury
account.

Upon this discovery, I and other officials in my department
have agreed to make business with you and release the total
amount into your account as the heir of the fund since no
one came for it or discovered he maintained
account with our bank,otherwise the fund will be returned
to the banks treasury as unclaimed fund.

We have agreed that our ratio of sharing will be as stated
thus;30 % for you as foreign partner,65 % for us the
officials in my department and 5 % for the settlement of
all local and foreign expences incurred by us and you
during t! he course of this business.

Upon the successful completion of th is transfer, I and one
of my colleagues will come to your country and mind our
share. It is from our 75% we intend to import Agricultural
Machineries into my country as a way of recycling the fund.

To commence this transaction,we require you to immediately
indicate your interest by a return e-mail with the
following information:

1)Your private telephone and fax number :

2.Your full name :

3, Your Occupation :

Upon the receipt of this,i will inturn get back to you and
give you the mordalities for the bank to approve you as the
next of kin.
Note also, this transaction must be kept because of its
nature.I look forward to receiving your prompt
response.

Please reply through this email address : steven_johnreal@myway.com

Best Regards

Steven John.


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