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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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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. Kofi Kuffour" <kofi_kuffour535@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 07 Jan 2006 02:24:45 +0000
Subject: Urgent proposal

Mr Immanuel Agyei,
EcoBank Gh Ltd.
Accra-Ghana.
West Africa.
      
Dear Sir,
     I am Mr Immanuel Agyei, the personal secretary to the director of bills/exchange at the foreign remittance department of EcoBank Gh Ltd. In my department, I discovered an abandoned sum of $14,700,000.00 (Fourteen Million, Seven Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only) in a private deposit vault account that belonged to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family, on the August 23 incident 2005, in a ghastly wind, and he happened to be a foreigner.
 
     Since I got the information about his death, we have been expecting his next-of-kin to come over and claim his money because the bank can not release it unless somebody applied for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines. Unfortunately, nobody has come forward to claim this money.

     It is based on this that some officials in my department and I have decided to establish a cordial business relationship with you, hence by contacting you. I want you to present yourself as the next of kin through your relation with the deceased, so that the funds can be remitted into your account.
 
     Moreover, I do not want the money to go into the government account as unclaimed bills. The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that any account abandoned or is dormant for a period of years, is deemed closed and all money contained therein forfeited to the government treasury account.
 
     Now, it is being speculated that the above sum will be transferred into the government account as an unclaimed fund on or before the end of this financial quarter of 2005, when nobody come forward to lay claims. The reason for requesting you to present yourself as next of kin, is occasioned by, the fact that the deceased (customer) was a foreigner, and we have access to his detailed bio data which you will hold as a weapon to present yourself as the next of kin.
 
     The mode of sharing after a successful transfer of the money into your account, shall be 35% to me, for the role you will be expected to play in this deal, you will take 35% of the total sum and we both mapped the balance 30% of the total fund as a donation to the welfare of those in needs. The 30% will be divided in two place, 15% will be donated to Liberian for the re-deveploment of their country and 15% will be donated to the welfare of those who lost their families, friends, loveones and properties in the August 23, 2005 hurricane disasters. Therefore, you are expected to reply this letter indicating your readiness and interest to participate in this business. After receiving your reply, you will be communicated with the exact steps to take.
 
     I expect your urgent response through my private email address immanuelagyei@hotmail.com. I shall contact you for further discussion on this matter, to enable us conclude this transaction urgently without any delay or hitch.
 
Please treat this business proposal as strictly confidential for security reasons considering my official position in EcoBank Gh Ltd and trust us that this transaction is risk free.
 
Personal Regards,
Mr Immanuel Agyei.


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