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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: "Mrs.Atu owusu" <fey_ib2@yahoo.co.in> (may be fake)
Date: Sat, 30 Jul 2005 14:42:55 +0100
Subject: Mrs.Atu owusu

Mrs.Atu owusu
Manageress
International
Commercial Bank
First-light kaneshie
Branch Ghana.
Attn: sir,
My name is Mrs.Atu Owusu, I am the Kaneshie branch
manageress of the International Commercial Bank of
Ghana.
I got your information during my search through the
Internet. I am 34years of age and married with 3
lovely kids. It may interest you to hear that I am a
woman of PEACE and don't want problem, I only hope we
can assist each other. If you don't want this business
offer kindly forget it as I will not contact you
again.
I have packaged a financial transaction that will
benefit both of us, as the regional manageress of the
International Commercial Bank; it is my duty to send
in a financial report to my head office in the capital
city Accra at the end of each year. On the course of
the last year 2003 end of year report, I discovered
that my branch in which I am the manageress made Three
million seven hundred fifty thousand dollars
[3,750.000.00] which my head office are not aware of
and will never be aware of. I have since place this
fund on what we call SUSPENSE ACCOUNT without any
beneficiary.
As an officer of the bank I can not be directly
connected to this money, so this informed my
contacting you for us to work so that you can assist
receive this money into your bank account for us to
SHARE. While you will have 30% of the total fund .Note
there are practically no risk involved, it will be
bank to bank transfer, all I need from you is to stand
claim as the original depositor of this fund who made
the deposit with our branch so that our Head office
can
order the transfer to your designated bank account. If
you accept this offer to work with me, I will
appreciate it very much. As soon as I receive your
response I will details you on how we can achieve it
successfully.
Best regards
Mrs.Atu owusu



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