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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: JOHNSON GOZAH <jngozah@ymail.com>
Reply-To: johnsongozah@rocketmail.com
Date: Sun, 4 Jul 2010 10:56:05 +0300
Subject: WITH REGARDS SIR



Dear Sir,


Please I beg of you, I would be grateful if you would be patient
enough to read
this.

My name is Johnson Gozah. I live in Ghana in West africa. I am 17 years old. I
know this mail will come to you as a suprise owing to the fact that you dont
know me. Without pretending, I got your contact from the internet.

As a matter of fact, right now as I am talking to you I am living within a
church premises with my mother. The reason being that I lost my dad some 14
months ago after a protracted illness that finally took his life. Before my
father's demise, himself and his younger brother had a lingering court case
with a gold-minining company based here in Accra Ghana. The company in
question
discovered gold in a land that belonged to my father's family and refused to
pay any royalty to my father and his younger brother. So the family took them
to court.

The court case lasted 12 years and finally was decided on my father's family's
favour. Consequently, the company was asked to pay the royalty that had
accumulated for twelve years to the tune of (US$ 44 million) Well my
dad had to
share the money with his younger brother and some distant relations. On the
long run, my father got the sum of US$21m as his own share of the money. Well,
shortly after that, my father took ill and was hospitalised for months.

During this period of his illness he asked his lawyer to deposit the
money with
a security company where he was sure it would be safe incase anything happened
to him. As the only child, my daddy wrote a will leaving everything for me.
This was however without anybody's knowledge except my mom and the
lawyer. Now,
after the demise of my father, his younger brother came asking for the money.
That was when the lawyer brought the will and read to their hearing what my
father said.

This did not go down well with my uncle, so since then he has been threatening
to deal with me and my mom if we dont deliver the money to him. Like I said
earlier, right now we are taking refuge in a church premises as it
appears the
only safe place for me and my mom though my uncle is still threatening
fire and
brimstone.

I know it sounds bizzare but I honestly need your help. The lawyer has told me
that the best thing to do is to get out of Ghana but I cannot do this
while the
fund is here. So I would really be very grateful if you would kindly help me
out of this problem so I can have the fund sent out of Ghana in your name then
join you as soon as possible.What I would want is simply to have you as my
father's partner in bussiness then the money would be transfered in your name
as my father's bussiness associate from the security company.Once the money is
succesfully transffered into any account number that you would provide to the
security company, you would be entitled to 40% of the fund when I arrive your
place.
Please I would be grateful if you can do this for me. I look forward
to hearing
from you as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Johnson.

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