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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: "kingsley owusu" <kingsleyowusu123@gmail.com>
Reply-To: kingsleyowusu3@tlen.pl
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:00:21 +0000
Subject: Dear Friend


From Kingsley Owusu
34 Buduburam refugee camp
Accra GHANA
INVESTMENT INQUIRY /BUSINESS PROPOSAL

Dear Friend,

I got your mail address from the Foreign Department in our Ministry of
Foreign Affairs Office so I decided to contact you. I know that this mail
will come to you as a surprise but I will like you to take this as one of
the things people over come on this earth. And I know that it is God that
led me to get your contact so that you will be of help to me. Before I will
go on let me introduce my self to you so that you will be able to know me
well.
I am Mr Kingsley Owusu, a Zimbabwean and the son of Mr Albert Owusu, a
renowned Farmer in Bulawayo Town in Zimbabwe. I write on behalf of the
Owusus family, to request if you are available and have the facility to
assist my family transfer funds and undertake some capital investment in
your country.

It will be necessary to inform you that the {US$18.2M} Eighteen million Two
Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) intended for the capitalization of
the investments are presently in the custody of a private security company
here in Republic GHANA, west Africa which we require to transfer out of west
Africa immediately for the said investment purposes.

You may have heard of the present crisis in Zimbabwe orchestrated by the
unprecedented Land use Act of the government of Robert Mugabe in which his
government has arbitrarily reclaimed and acquired all farm lands owned by
the white farmers in the country. This has caused a historical displacement
of the white folks who are known to be the country's mainfarmers.The ensuing
struggles and strife have brought about the killing and imprisonment of
thousands of these white farm owners by the ruthless government forces
designated to enforce this new order.

My father, in his good will, joined
the international community in condemning and speaking out against this
uncivilized and bizarre policy of Robert Mugabe s government. As a result of
my father firm and upright position on this matter, a group of assailants
suspected to be government sympathizers attacked and killed my father in
cold blood in February this year. Seeing that the entire Owusus family was
in serious threat of extinction, we immediately fled Zimbabwe to republic of
GHANA, where we have sojourned ever since as refugee camps under the United
Nations.

Prior however, to my father untimely death he had sensing the rising
hostilities, sold some of his farm lands including those of some of his
white farmer associates who had transferred ownership of their farm lands to
my father to forestall the government acquiring them. My father secretly
sent the proceeds {US$18.2M} Eighteen million Two Hundred Thousand United
States Dollars) from sales of the farm lands to west Africa. And deposited
same in a metal box with a private security company here in Accra republic
of GHANA, the box was deposited as family acheves only me and my dad knew
what is inside the consignment.
Having seen your contact information in your country's business journal,we
now contact you for immediate assistance in lifting the funds out of west
Africa for the said investments.
It will interest you also to note that we have all this while articulated
the needful arrangements through which the
transfer will be affected. To come to terms with you regarding your reward
for helping us actualize this matter, we have agreed to offer you 30% of the
total money ,5% will be mapped out for the expenses we may incur during this
transaction then 65% will be for me and my family. It is equally important
to state here that considering the nature of this matter, we will required
that it is handled most discreetly.
Kindly contact me upon receipt of this letter for execution details and
other necessary discussion.
In anticipation of your trusted and genuine assistance I remain,


Yours sincerely
Mr Kingsley Owusu

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