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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: "Mr James Owusu" <james.owusu98@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: jamesowusu2000@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 10:46:30 +0000
Subject: URGENT RESPONSE

>From The Desk Of,
Mr James Owusu.


Dear Friend,

My name is Mr James Owusu . I am the Regional Manager of International
commercial Bank of Ghana,[I.C.B] accra branch Ghana. I write you this
proposal in good faith; I am married with two lovely children. I am a man of
peace, and have sincere respect for human feelings and opinions. I have
packaged a financial transaction that will benefit you and I. As the
Regional Manager of Ghana west Africa Bank, accra branch Ghana it is my duty
to send in a financial report to my
head office in the capital city, Accra at the end of each business year.

On the course of last year, 2005 business report, I discovered that the
branch in which I am the Manager made 9.3million United States Dollars
($9,300,000.00) which my head office is not aware of and will never be aware
of. I have placed this funds on what we call Escrow call account with no
beneficiary. As an officer of this bank I cannot be directly connected to
this money, so my aim of contacting you is to assist me receive this money
in your bank account and get 30% of the
total funds as commission.

There are practically no risks involved, the transaction will be executed
under a legitimatearrangement that will protect you from any breach of the
law, it will be simply a bank-to-bank transfer, and all I need from you is
to stand claim as the original depositor of these funds who made the deposit
with my branch so that my head office can order the transfer to your
designated bank account under few working days. If you accept to work with
me I will appreciate it very much
as you are the first and the only person I am contacting for this
transaction.

Send me an email as soon as you receive this message if you think so that we
can go over the details.

Thank you in advance and may God bless you and your family.

Sincerely,
Mr James Owusu.

_________________________________________________________________
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