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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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.

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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "former president of liberia" (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
  • "liberia" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
  • "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
• This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
  

Fraud email example:

From: "Benard Smith" <bensmithfamilytoday2@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 08:38:29 -0700
Subject: PREAMBLE/INTRODUCTION


Good day Sir,
I must say it my pleasure to send you these email, how are you doing,
I hope you are doing fine, if so glory be to God, while I am Bernard
and my sister name is Sonia, we are the children of the late Mr. Harry
Smith of Liberia, who was killed by Charles Taylor former President of
Liberia in the civil war, me and my Sister Sonia were young then.
After our parents were killed we have to run to
Abidjan where we have lived all this years, it all came to a point that we
could not feed so we decided to come down to the refugee camp
here in Ghana to seek political asylums and to enable us mix up with the
refugees to make us live like brothers. Since we came to the camp the
Ghana Government has been doing a very great work by sending the
refugees items to feed on, so that is how we have been surviving here in the
camp,
My late fathers name was among the list of people that deposited
money in one of these banks in Ghana, I have contacted the bank and I was
ask to look for a
genuine and reliable Foreign beneficiary that can stand as a father and as
my late father
foreign beneficiary so this money can be transferred to him, because
our parent said the money should be kept for safekeeping and onward
transfer.
So that is why I have sent you these mail to ask you to stand in that
chance for me to enable us(me and my sister) get our late father money
out of the bank.
I will send you the following information as soon as I hear from you,
1, The name of the bank
2, The Amount involved.
3, The bank website,
4, My contact address and my personal Telephone number.
5, My international passport
The reason I have not include them is because of ungodly
act been carried out by those Fraudster on internet because they may
likely use them for their ungodly acts.
Please I want you to stand in this chance so you can help us get this
money out of this bank, so you have to get back to me so that I can
send you the (5) items not included in my mail to you for further
information and for good understanding.
it' important.
I hope to hear from you soon,
Regards,
Bernard Smith

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam