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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: Desmond Owosu <teu9oe2w@johnnnymails.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Apr 2010 07:34:39 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: YOUR URGENT INTEREST

Dear Friend


Thanks for your attention! My name is Mr. Desmond Owosu from the republic of Ghana; I am the General Managing Standard Chartered Bank (Ghana). Please, permit me to use this medium to seek your consent on this important business.

My friend Mr. John Scotch was in gold mining business here in my country Ghana, He bought a gold farm through my help just a year after, he died. He was struck dead by industrial accident in his mining site on supervision during operation and left behind U.S $25,000,000.00 (Twenty Five Million United State Dollars) in his deposit since the year 2005, with 250Kg of AU Gold dust in the treasure room saved for treading with my bank. He did not declare his Will or Inheritance to any prospective, getting to 5yrs now, no one has come up for this claim and this fund has generated a large sum of interest now to the total sum, being that it is in trading account as well. Now I have decided to move the capital sum because nobody will come out for it or any proclamation, so I need your assistance to move this funds out to your account legitimately.

I am contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be approving to any local bank or beneficiary here. I have all the official documents regarding this deposit in my position, all I want now is your acceptance to stand in and receive this fund in your position as the foreign beneficiary to Mr. John Scotch, I will make all the official papers legal to protect your interest and also my interest to enable the funds transfer free and fair to your account. 40% of the total sum will be your interest and 60% will be mine.

For more assurance, I shall use my executives office to approve this funds officially and legitimately for transfer once I have your interest and I guarantee you that there shall not be any problem to this business, I have all modalities set in place for the execution of this project.

Kindly reply if you are interested. If not, please discard.

Regards,

Mr. Desmond Owosu.

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