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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: "Greg Abalade" <abalade22@gmail.com>
Reply-To: abaladegreg18@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 6 Jul 2008 03:42:44 -0700
Subject: I WILL BE HONEST


Greetings,

My name is Greg Abalade from Sierra-Leone but I am presently a refugee
staying in Ghana. I am writing to solicit your assistance in the transfer of
$12,000.000.00 million U.S dollars which my late father deposited in a
secret deposit with my name as the next of kin.
This amount of money was deposited by my late father who was a diamond
dealer in the Sierra-Leone before he was killed with my mother by the the
Revolutionary United Front ( RUF) rebels.Before the death of my father, he
told me about this private and secret deposit he made with a security and
finance company.

Presently I am in Ghana where I sought asylum and I have contacted the
security and finance company to confirm the existence of the deposit, after
having confirmed that, I contacted with my lawyer who advised me that I must
seek for a foreign beneficiary who will assist me to claim the consignment
because I cannot claim it because I have a refugee status at the moment and
the fiscal policy of Ghana forbid a refugee to own over $150 and as such if
I proceed with my request to claim the money, that it will be seized by the
government.,

so I have been advised by my lawyer that I should find a foreign partner
abroad and then transfer the next of kin to him or her and after having
legally transferred the next of Kin ,then the Security and Finance company
will be requested to transfer the money to my partner in his or her country
and after that my partner can help me to travel to his or her country.

My purpose of contacting you is to appoint you as my next of kin so that we
will make a legalized change of next of kin and instruct the security
company to transfer the money to you in your country. I agree to give you
30% of the total money for your role. If you accept my proposal, please
reply with the following information:
NAME:
COUNTRY:
AGE:
OCCUPATION:
MOBILE NUMBER:

God Bless you,
Greg Abalade

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