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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: "Commissioner Of Customs" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <erklanyon@gmx.com.my>
Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2010 03:05:43 +0100
Subject: RE: YOUR GOODS WITH THE CUSTOMS,

My Friend,

I hope this message reaches you in good health.

By way of introduction, I am Mr. Ed Richard Kumah Lanyon, the new Ghana Commissioner of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, (CEPS). You may visit the following website for your further confirmation: ( http://www.ghanacustoms.gov.gh/pdf2/new_commissioner.pdf ). I am contacting you because of my findings on my assumption in the office.

I wish to inform you that we discovered a metric trunk box in our abandoned storage room containing 100kg's of alluvial gold dust with your name and contact details attached to it as the sole beneficiary. From our record, we discovered that you might have abandoned your goods due to 0.25% tax duty that was imposed on it by the prior Commissioner of Customs.

I wish to inform you that my office is taking a new measure to bring back our business relationship with the entire foreigners by giving out 0.20% waver discount on the taxation duty. Thus, you have been granted a waver discount of 0.20% which means you will be required to pay only 0.5% of the taxation duty that was formerly charged on your goods.

At this verge, you are required to call me at: +233-268467002 once you receive this message for clarification on final processing and delivery of your goods to your destination.

Yours Sincerely,

Ed Richard Kumah Lanyon,
Commissioner, (Ghana) Customs,
Excise & Preventive Service (CEPS).

Anti-fraud resources: