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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: "Michael Ezra." <mezra1960@yahoo.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: mezra_1960@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 14 Jan 1996 03:44:54 +0000
Subject: From: Michael Ezra.

From: Michael Ezra,
International Commercial Bank of Ghana,
Takoradi Branch.

Dear Sir,
I got your contact during my search on the Internet. My name is Mr. Michael Ezra, the regional manager of International Commercial Bank Takoradi Branch Ghana. I am a Ghanaian 45 years and married with three children although i am not comfortable to send this proposal to you because of high increase in scam especially in Africa, infact, people do not know the real one but i am too sure that this is not scam because you have access to confirm provided you did not let my bank know the source of your information.

As the regional manager of the bank, it is my duty to send financial reports to my head office in the capital city of Accra Ghana. On the course of the last year 2004 end of the year's report, I discovered that my branch in which I am the manager made Nine Hundred Thousand US Dollars (900.000.00) of which my head office is not aware and will never be aware of it. I have placed this fund in an Escrow call account no: 0661818092 without a beneficiary.

My plan was to transact this business after my retirement but there is miscalculation of money in my branch how it happens I don’t know, the Boards of ICB Ltd decided that I will pay the money because I am the Manager of the branch and they decided that they will be deducting money from my salary until the money is completed and right now i don't have money to take care of my family. This is my reason for doing this business now.
As the regional manager of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this money thus I am impelled to request for your assistance to receive this money into your bank account. I intend to part 25% of this fund to you while 75% shall be for me and two officers who will assist me move the fund to your account. I do need to assure you that there are no risks involved in this business. It’s going to be a bank-to-bank transfer. All I need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund.

If you accept this offer, I will appreciate your timely response because i want to get this fund out from my bank immediately.

With regards,
Michael Ezra.
Email: mezra_1960@hotmail.com


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