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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: "Dr Paul Akwa" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dr.paul@adinet.com.uy>
Date: Sat, 5 Jun 2010 09:56:41 +0430
Subject: Best regards!From Dr Paul Akwa

Best regards!

This mail may be a surprise to you because you don't know me. My name is Dr Paul Akwa, a branch bank manager of INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANK GHANA LTD and I am a Ghanaian married with 3 kids. After several official inquiries from the foreign trade office of our Chambers of Commerce and Industry, I decided to contact you directly for assistance. I am writing to solicit your assistance in the transfer of US$2,500,000.00 Dollars. This fund comes from the excess profit my branch made last year (i.e. 2009 financial year) and I have already submitted an annual report for that year to my head office in Accra-Ghana and they could not find out this excess profit.

I would like to transfer this fund into your account and invest in your country if possible through your advice and assistance. I choose you because I cannot be directly involved since I am still working with the bank, I hope you can understand my situation and assist me to receive and invest this money properly as this is my only hope. You will get 30% of the total fund as commission for your sympathetic co-operation while 70% will be for me. I am willing to go into partnership investment with you owing to your wealth of experience, So please if you are interested to assist on this venture kindly get back to me for more details on how to proceed.

Best regards,
Dr Paul Akwa

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