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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: =?iso-8859-1?q?Kennedy=20Williams?= <kennedywilliams4444@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: kennedywilliamscbn@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:49:49 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Immediate response needed


I have a new email address!You can now email me at: kennedywilliams4444@yahoo.co.uk



- Hello Sir,My name is Kennedy Williams.I work as an office assistant to regional manager of (ECOBANK). There was an account opened in this bank in 1999 and since 2001 nobody has operated this account again. After going through some old files in the records,I discovered that if I do not remit this money out urgently it would be forfeited for nothing. The owner of this account is Mr.Morris Thompson, a foreigner, Business Man and a Shell oil and gas Company, a Geologist by profession who died in 2000. No other person knows this account or anything concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to me as well that this company does not know anything about this account and the money involved is fifteen million (US$ 15 Million) I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money can not be approved to a local bank here, but can only be approved to any foreign account because the money is in United States Dollars and the former owner Mr. Morris Thompson is a foreigner too.I know that this message will come to you as surprise as we don’t know ourselves before. We will sign an agreement, but be sure that it is real and a genuine business. You can view the web site bellow for more information on our late client.http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/ with believe in God that you will never let me down in this business, considering my position as a public servant. You are the only person that I have contacted in this business; so please reply urgently so that I will inform you the next step to take immediately. Send also your private telephone and cell phone numbers.I have decided that as soon as the money is fully gotten and confirmed in your account,i shall come down to your country for sharing.Now i am proposing that you shall take,35% of the whole amount while you keep 60% for me while 5% will kept aside to augument what we have expended to actualise this tranasaction.Meanwhile, I am contacting you because of the need to involve a foreigner with foreign account and foreign beneficiary. I need your full co-operation to make this work fine because the management is ready to approve this payment to any foreigner who has correct information of this account, which I will give to you as soon as you indicate your sincerity to co-operate with me, and capability to handle such amount in strict confidence and trust according to my instruction and advice for our mutual benefit because this opportunity may never come again in my life. I need a truthful and God fearing person in this business because I dont want to make a mistake so I need your strong assurance and trust. With my position in the office I dont want anything that will jeopardize my job so I advice that we should make secrecy and confidentiality our primary working condition, bearing in mind that I am a public servant.I look forward to your earliest reply,to confirm receipt of this mail now,call me on +234-808-606-5395 and email: kennedywilliamscbn@yahoo.com immediately.Yours sincerely,Kennedy Williams


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