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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: "Kwame" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <johnkwame200@gmx.com>
Date: Wed, 15 Sep 2010 23:24:26 +0200
Subject: From Melissa Williams

?Hello dear,

I greet you and your family. My name is Mr.John Kwame and I am a security officer working with Regio Security Service’s branch Accra Ghana (West Africa) where many people keep valuable goods.

In our company storage facility, the management demands a Monthly/quarterly/yearly Payment from its customers but in an event of a customer failing to pay or meet up with his/her payments within a fixed time of three years, the management reserves the right to hold on to goods that had been deposited in the storage.

As one of the senior security personnel in the company, I was asked on 5th March, 2010 to open a storage locker of one customer who hadn’t made payments during the stipulated time framed. The Management had tried contacting the customer severally but couldn’t get him, all his contact telephone numbers were disconnected and the country court judgment letter sent to his address was returned to us stating that he no longer lived at that address.

Following instructions, I opened the locker, behold, I found pure Gold Dust worth millions of Dollars, I was ecstatic ...... to say the least. I quickly closed the unit and I didn’t disclose to my colleagues the exact thing I saw in the customer’s unit then later I secretly cleared all the Gold Dust from the unit when every member of staff had gone home.

At the moment, I am the only one who knows the existence and whereabouts of the Gold. If it can be sold because I need the money from the sale of this Gold Dust with which I can set up my own company and give my family a good life. I must confess that I am not a rich man and fate has brought me this opportunity to get the Gold Dust.
Hence, I require your assistance to take possession of the Gold Dust and also look for means of selling it off in your country or elsewhere where there will be no trace of it then split the profit from the sale 50/50.

As you know it will look very suspicious if I am found selling the Gold dust here or having it in my possession. Thus, I had to remove the content (gold dust) then packed it in a different box and hide it among other consignment about to be couriered to Europe and tagged it as “Fragile Equipment” awaiting shipment to its owners.

Based on this huge task, I had to take a long sick leave and flown to Europe where the consignment is to conclude this transaction within 10 days but do not have the legal right to claim it; therefore I need you to send me your full names, complete home address, work telephone & cell phone numbers (communication is highly essential) at the earliest time so that I can present you to the courier service as the owner of the consignment hence that was not mentioned in the Air way bill so that it will be shipped to your provided address as the consignment is now in Europe.

I will forward the information to the company, as soon as I receive it thereafter; send the airway bill of shipment to you. I shouldn’t emphasis the need of privacy in this deal because you and I know it deserves total privacy. I regard your personality, so act accordingly as urgency requires.

Thanks,

Mr.John Elo Kwame.
john.kwame@gmx.com

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