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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: William John <william_jh13@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <johnwilliam_jm@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2007 08:27:18 +0000
Subject: Good Day Swift Reply



Good Day, I will give you the name of my bank and other important information if I receive a positive reply from you. For security I can't disclose my full identity to you until I am sure of your cooperation . I work in the operations department where I serve as an account officer to many customers.One of the customers whom I worked as his account officer was a wealthy Gold merchant from neighboring Sierra Leone. He had lost his family during the during the Sierra Leone war and had managed to escape to this country (Ghana) with his wealthy intact. Unfortunately he died last year. Because of his goodness to me when he was alive, I took it up myself to travel to his country last month to see if can locate any of his close relations. on reaching there I discovered that his only surviving uncle died a few months back. I sponsored this trip on my own and nobody in the bank knew I undertook thisjourney because I did not present any official report based on it. Now there are two things I can do with regards to the dead man's money. First as his account officer I could formally notify the bank authorities that the man is dead and has no next of kin. In this case the money would be forfeited to the government after sometime ,which i don't want. As a matter of fact this is the proper thing I am supposed to do. Another option is to arrange for someone else, a foreigner to act as the next of kin of the late man so that he will claim the money. This option that I can take to help anybody and myself since the money came from public fund in his country. Actually he was a close ally to the late brutal military president that looted the government treasury to his fill. This is the reason why I have chosen to do it and want you to be my partner to realize my aim. All we have to do is to present you as the next of kin of the dead man and with my expreience we can Claim this Money. As the accounts officer of the dead man I have all the necessary information about the Account that you will require to claim the money in the account. The total amount in the account is US$15 million (15,000,000). Your share will be 40% of the money, which is US$6,000,000 while mine will be 60%. Reach me immediately by e-mail ( johnwilliam_jmw@yahoo.com )so that I can give you further details. TrulyWilliam John.
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