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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: "Andrew Kofi" <andrewonline8@mail.mn>
Reply-To: andrewkofi@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 06:11:31 +0000
Subject: ATTN: Dear Sir/Madam


Dear friend,

I got your contact during my search for a reliable, honest and a trust
worthy person to entrust this huge transfer project with. my name is Mr.
Andrew Kofi. I am the manager of the international commercial bank Ghana,
first light branch. I am a Ghanaian married with two kids.

I am writing to solicit your assistance in the transfer of us$3,500.000.00.
This fund is the excess of what my branch in which I am the manager made as
profit during the last year's audition. I have already submitted an approved
end of the year report for the year 2007 to my head office here in Accra and
they will never know of this excess. I have since then, placed this amount
of us$3,500.000.00 on a suspense account without a beneficiary.

as an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this money thus
I am impelled to request for your assistance to receive this money into your
bank account. I intend to part 30% of this fund to you while 70% shall be
for me. I do need to stress that there are practically 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. If you accept this offer, I
will appreciate your timely response.

With regards,

Mr. Andrew Kofi.
----------------
----------------
This email is privileged and contains confidential information intended only
for the person named above. Any other distribution, copying or disclosure
is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email by error, please
notify the sender immediately or delete any electronic hard copy. Thank you.

Anti-fraud resources: