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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: "martins kofi" <martkofi106@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: martkofi_1977@safe-mail.net
Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 00:20:45 +0000
Subject: Urgent reply

From: Martins kofi
Accra, Ghana.

Dearest

I got your contact during my search for a reliable,honest and a trust worth
person to entrust this huge transfer project with. My name is Mr.Martins
kofi , Branch manager of a financial institution here in Ghana. I am a
Ghanaian married with two kids. I am writing to solicit your assistance in
the transfer of $ 4,550.000.00 Million United States dollars only.

This fund is the excess of what my branch in which am the manager made as
profit during the 2004 financial year. I have already submitted annual
report for that year to my head office here in Accra as I have watched with
keen interest as they will never know of this excess.
I have since, placed this amount of $ 4,550.000.00Million United States
dollars only to an Escrow Coded account without a beneficiary (anonymous) to
avoid trace.
As an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this money thus
I am impelled to equest for your assistance to receive this money into your
bank account on my behalf. I intend to part 30% of this fund to you while
70% shall be for me. I do need to stress that there arepractically no risk
involved in this. It's going to be a bank-to-bank transfer. All I need from
you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund so that the fund can
be transferred to your account. If you accept this offer, I will appreciate
your timely response.

With Regards,

Mr. Martins kofi

_________________________________________________________________
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