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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: tony williams <tony_66williams@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 03:17:44 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Sir,


Sir,
I humbly ask for your assistance to enable me transfer the money my late father kept in a bank in(International Commercial Bank)before he died, into your nominated account overseas. My name is TONY WILLIAMS JOHNSON, my mother's name is Madam Mariam Johnson and my late father's name is Chief Omeh Attah Johnson.

He was a gold and diamond merchant from Ashanti region of Ghana in West Africa I am from a polygamous family and my father has four wives and twenty-four children, am the eighth child and my mother is the last wife of my father and he entrusted all his valuable documents to her.

Since we are from a polygamous home, after the death of my father, the whole family has been deserted. Now my elder brothers, sisters and their mothers are in search of my father's documents but my mother who is in possession of the documents has refused to disclose the custodian of the documents to them, because they are all fighting for themselves and their selfish interest.

Right now all I want from you is your bank account number where we can instruct the bank to transfer this money to you by telegraphic transfer, which takes about three working days.

We are making this arrangement in order to avoid the rest of the children and their mothers, because if they find out they will take everything from us. It is for the mutual benefit of both of us, you will be entitle to twenty percent of the funds, as the owner of the account, the total amount in the bank is $21 million dollars.

Please reply immediately with your Bank account details so that we can forward the information to the bank of ghana to expedite the transfer immediately.

Could you also include your contact address, fax numbers and your private mobile phone number for easy communication.

Best regards.

TONY WILLIAMS JOHNSON

call + 233-277-312016


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