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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: Akasa Williams <akasa_williams@ymail.com>
Reply-To: akasa1williams@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Sun, 30 May 2010 12:51:39 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: JUST TO APPEAL TO YOU


From: Akasa Williams
Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire
(Ivory Coast)

                                                    
Dear Uncle / Aunty,
                                                           
Please read my message and help me.
I am Akasa Williams. The only surviving child of Dr. J. 0. Williams from Ivory Coast.
 
My father was a well-known Building & Civil Engineering Contractors with Ivorian Government, Abidjan, Ivory Coast and was poisoned to death on 19th January, 2010 by his close associates in collaboration with our family members out of jealousy. And since then life has been meaningless to me, living without parents.
 
According to my father, my mother died out of bleeding after child birth in 2005, since then my father has been taking care of me as a motherless child.
 
Before the death of my father on 19th January this year, 2010, he carefully revealed to me on his sick bed about Bank Lodgment Receipt of sum of US$15,500,000 (Fifteen Million, Five Hundred Thousand U.S. Dollars) he deposited with one of the leading banks here, using my name as the Next of Kin. My father explained to me that this money belonged to him alone and advised me to look for a foreign partner in a country of my choice who will be kind enough to help me transfer the money into the person's account on my behalf for investment in case he did not survive the sickness. Unfortunately he died few days later.
 
I have contacted the bank with a copy of the Bank Lodgment Receipt for the claim as the beneficiary. The bank went through their file and discovered that my claim was genuine, they told me that I should come any time I am ready, but my problem is that this money is too big for me to handle, more especially now that the government of Ivory Coast is passing through serious political crisis since September 19, 2002 failed coup attempt to remove the President out of power. It is therefore based on this that I am sending this mail to seek for your help in the following ways:-
 
You will be required to:
 
1) Assist in the transfer of the said amount.
2) Advise on any lucrative area(s) of investment, and
3) Assist in the management of same investments.
 

Therefore, if you are willing to render this help to me, I am ready to reward you with 30% of the total amount as compensation. You will also be entitled to additional 10% of the Investment Dividends annually for your participation and supervision.  
 
Finally, I will like to encourage you not to entertain fears for rendering this help to me since this is a personal money that has nothing to do with government of this country or its agents. Therefore, if you are interested, please kindly reply immediately you receive this email for more details.
 
Thank you very much for your great concern. May God bless you and your entire family as I wait for your urgent reply.

 
Sincerely yours,
Akasa Williams.




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