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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: "Mr. Ibrahima Gueye" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <ibrahgue@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 6 Sep 2014 07:59:32 -0700
Subject: Bank Transaction (Pls treat as urgent) 9/6/2014

From:  Mr. Ibrahima Gueye
          Director of Finance
          Administration and Finance
          ECOWAS Commission
          www.ecowas.int
 
Greetings,
 
Subject:  Requesting your cooperation to transfer Thirty Million United States dollars investment funds to your bank account.
 
I am the Director of Finance of the ECOWAS Commission, I got your contact through the West African Free Trade Database internet portal in my search of a reliable and trustworthy foreign partner and I hope we can work closely together if we can reach a mutual agreement between us.
 
I am seeking your sincere cooperation to move the aforementioned funds to your country for private investment because the ECOWAS Public Service Code of Conduct Bureau highly prohibits any public officeholder from operating a foreign bank account or private investment while in active service. By virtue of my status as the Director of Finance, I would sincerely wish to confidentially establish an investment partnership with you prior to my retirement from public service by mid 2015.
 
On completion of the transfer of this fund to your private bank account, you will be entitled to deduct 25% of the total fund to compensate your efforts and 5% will cover all expense including tax, while the remaining 70% will be released personally to me on retirement as my private investment capital subsequent to my arrival to your country.
 
We shall discuss further details as soon as I receive your reply, is rest assured that this transaction is 100% risk-free.The funds will be transferred without any breach of international financial law.
  
 
Best regards,
Mr. Ibrahima Gueye.

Anti-fraud resources: