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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: "Owusu Ansah. Kwasi." <owusu1515@yahoo.ca>
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 2006 09:24:38 -0500 (EST)
Subject: RE:ITERBNK/F/T2005.


Dear Sir/Madam,

I am representing, the manager, bills and exchange unit of the foreign remittance department of International Commercial Bank Ghana.

I am writing following the fact that our deceased customer shared the same surname with you and based on this fact, our search for our deceased customer's next of kin produced you as someone who could champion this course and help us pull this fund to a reliable foreign bank account for the benefit of us all. In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of USD5.5 million Dollars (Five million, five hundred thousand US Dollars) in account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family in November 1998 in a plane crash.However,the bank got informtion of the customer's death in 2003.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we can not release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guide lines and laws but unfortunately we learnt that his supposed next of kin or relation died along side with him during the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I and other officials in my department now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since Nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the Bank's treasury as unclaimed.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after four years, the money will be transferred into the Bank's treasury as unclaimed fund. The request for a foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and an indigenes can not stand as next of kin to this family. We agreed that 30 % of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 10 % will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business and 60 % would be for me and my colleagues.

There after my colleagues and I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated. Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the Bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased, your private telephone and fax numbers for easier communication. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or e-mail the text of the application. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch free and that you should not entertain any form of fear, as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter. Please,reply through: owusu_2002@zwallet.com

Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Yours Truly,
Owusu Ansah Kwasi.


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