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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.

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Fraud email example:

From: "Mr David Kwame" <davidkwame_ecowas1@indiatimes.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: davidkwame_ecowas@indiatimes.com
Date: Wed, 8 Jun 2005 10:58:54 -0700
Subject: IN GOOD FAITH

ECOWASBANK PLC.
37 High Street, Accra,
Ghana, West Africa.

Greetings.

My name is Mr. David Kwame, the Manager, Credit and Foreign Bills of
ECOWASBANK PLC .I am writing in respect of a foreign customer of my bank with account number D14-A55-096/utb/t who perished
in a plane crash [Ethiopian airline) with the whole passengers aboard.

Since the demise of this our customer. I have personally watched with
keen interest to see the next of kin but all has proved abortive as no one
has come to claim his funds of USDollar 28.5 m, [twenty-eight million five
hundred thousand united states dollars] which has been with my branch
for a very long time.

On this note, I decided to seek for whom his name shall be used as the
Next of kin as no one has come up to be the next of kin. And the banking
ethics here does not allow such money to stay more than Nine years, because money will be recalled to the bank treasury as unclaimed after this period. Inview of this I got your contact through a search on the Internet .I
shall give you 40% of the total sum.

I will not fail to bring to your notice that this business is hitch free
and that you should not entertain any fear as all modalities for fund
transfer can be finalized within five banking days, after you apply to
the bank as a relation to the deceased.

When you receive this letter. Kindly send me e-mail signifying
Your decision including your private telephone/ fax numbers for quick
communication.

Respectfully submitted,

MR.David Kwame
Manager, Credit and Foreign Bills















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