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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: "sunny amankwah" <sunny_amankwah@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Oct 2005 06:29:59 -0400
Subject: PROJECT PARTICIPATION











DEAR FRIEND,




MY NAME IS MR. SUNNY AMANKWAH MANAGER  OF A BANK (NAME OF THE BANK WITHHELD)
IN GHANA WEST AFRICA.WITH MY POSITION I GENERATED THREE MILLION EIGHT
HUNDRED
AND THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS ($3,800,000.00 USD) WHICH I AS AFRICAN
HEAD OF BUDGET OPERATIONS WHEN SETTING-UP SOME NEW BRANCHES IN THE EAST OF
AFRICA
WHICH STARTED TWO YEARS.

I AM PROPOSING TO YOU TO STAND AS THE BENEFICIARY OF THIS MONEY BECAUSE AS
THE REGIONAL MANAGER AT PRESENT I DON’T NEED TO BE INVOLVED WITH THIS KIND
OF MONEY I
AM WILLING TO PART 30% OF THE TOTAL AMOUNT TO YOU WITH MY POSITION THIS
TRANSFER WILL BE DONE SMOOTHLY AND IT WILL BE DONE THROUGH SWIFT TELEGRAPHIC
TRANSFER.

AT THIS STAGE CAN YOU PROVIDE A GOOD CURRENT ACCOUNT WERE THIS MONEY WILL BE
TRANSFERRED? BUT I REALLY NEED TO BE CONVINCED THAT I CAN TOTALLY RELY ON
YOU TO
CARRY OUT THIS DEAL AND ALSO KEEP THE MONEY UNTIL I MEET WITH YOU WHICH WE
WILL ARRANGE.

YOU CAN CONTACT ME ON MY PRIVATE ABOVE EMAIL AND DO LET ME HAVE YOUR PHONE
DETAILS SO THAT I CAN CALL YOU BACK.

THANKING YOU FOR YOUR ANTICIPATED CO-OPERATION.

KIND REGARDS,

MR SUNNY AMANKWAH

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