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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: "Ahmed Ali" <aliali123@att.net>
Reply-To: <ali.almirghani2jnr@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 05:07:18 -0800
Subject: Dear Mummy,

Dear Mummy,

I am writing this message to seek your sincere assistance towards an important project of mine but before going further I would like to state brief introduction of myself herein. My name is Mr. Ahmed Ali Al-Mirghani Jnr. I am the son of the former Sudanese President; Ahmed Al-Mir al-Mirghani who died on the 2nd of November 2008 in Alexandria, Egypt where he had gone on exile after his political overthrow which was as a result of coup led by the current Sudanese President, Omar Al-Bashir. My father headed the last democratically elected government in Sudanbetween 1986 and 1989 and was removed 19 years ago by the military coup that brought the current regime to power. He also served as Sudan'sAmbassador to Egypt.

I would be glad to open up my main plans for writing this message to you and I trust you will never let me down on my request as you finish reading the contents of the message. In essence, the present government has accused my late father falsely, claiming that during his regime, part of government funds were used in financing his personal project/investments inside and outside the country. As I am writing this message to you, the government has confiscated barely all my late father's property unjustly and basically, the current government is doing this because of their previous misunderstanding with my late father knowing how his regime ended.

However, I acted very fast as I tried to elope to Ghana with some valuable properties that belong to my late father since the government has planned the down fall of our family simply because my father is dead. I have just arrived Ghana yesterday with two boxes whereby one contain the total sum of US$30,000,000.00 (Thirty Million United States Dollars) while the other box contain gold amounting to 200kg (two hundred kilograms), For safe-keeping. The boxes are presently stored in a security company in, Accra-Ghana. I made the decision to store the boxes with the security company as soon as I arrived Ghana because of the fact that I know nobody in this country and as you know I cannot toil with the contents of the boxes yet undisclosed to anybody except you. I told the storage unit that its contents are fragile items and they were satisfied with that.

I cannot go to Sudanese Embassy here in Ghana because the Ambassador of Sudan in Ghana is a very close friend to the current Sudanese president, so you can imagine what will happen if I seek the help of the Ambassador as he could be the one who will betray me, Sudanese government knows nothing about my whereabouts. I will also need your assistance as a foreign Beneficiary who will help me in the area of investment in your country and the total funds, I want to invest in a business that will sustain my family, I do not want to talk about percentage, I would like to entrust the total amount with you and for you to help me manage it because I still want to go to school, I am just 20yrs of age.

As soon as I receive a positive reply from you, I will furnish you with the information of the custodians of the boxes at the security company so you could personally request for release of the boxes to yourself as my foreign beneficiary/investor

God bless you.
Sincerely,
Ali Al-Mirghani Jnr

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