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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: "Fosu" <kennethfosu1@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <kennethfosu@myself.com>
Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 12:12:19 -0000
Subject: PLEASE ARE YOU INTERESTED?

Good Day.

My name is Mr. Kenneth Fosu. I am the vault manager with a private security company in Republic of Ghana, I have been working with this security company for the past eighteen (18) years, though without anything to show for it. I have a business proposal I want to confide in you that demands urgent attention and your full corporation for execution and also for our mutual benefits. Though, we have not seen each other before, but notwithstanding I strongly believed that my coming to you with this prospective business is divine and my assurance to you is that you will never regret your participation in bringing this transaction to a conclusion with me.

In my company there are four consignments that has been unclaimed for the past seven years and in my effort as the vault manager of my company to locate the depositor through his records/files that is with my company I was told by people around his premises that he is dead and as a matter of fact, all efforts to even locate any of his relatives or close associates also proved abortive hence he is a foreigner.

However, three months ago, the management and board of directors of my company came up with a new policy that any consignment/package that has remained unclaimed for a period of eight (8) years should be removed from the company vault and disposed to create space in order to accommodate other incoming consignments/boxes. As the vault manager of my company, it is my duty to declare these four unclaimed consignments for disposal as agreed by the management and board of directors of my company. But on my proper scanning on these four consignments/boxes before they will be declared for disposal, I discovered that these consignments/boxes have images of money in the currency of United States Dollars in them.

Therefore, since the original depositor of these consignments/boxes is late and no one has come for the claiming of these consignments/boxes or shown up as the next of kin to the depositor, I therefore need your urgent assistance as a foreigner to cooperate with me and front yourself as next of kin to the depositor of these boxes/consignments and claim them from my company where they are deposited for our mutual benefits and take 30% of the fund as your reward plus cost. As a matter of fact, I cannot do this all alone without implicating myself due to electronics monitoring systems/gadgets mounted in and outside my company’s premises.

Should you be interested, kindly indicate in writing to enable me intimate you fully on the steps to take for the perfection and smooth claiming of these consignments/boxes from my company. Also forward your name and other vital contact information of yours to me for prompt action. More importantly, make your direct telephone numbers available to me to enhance communication with you. I want to give you 100% assurance that given to your response and corporation in this deal that within the next few days from today the consignments will be legally claimed and delivered to your door-step.

Finally, I want to emphasize here that this deal is free from any form of risk from both parties as great care has been exercised in perfecting it, and therefore, I enjoin you to approach it with an open mind and without any fear whatsoever. As a deal, I make haste to advise that you should be private about it.

Regards,
Mr. Kenneth Fosu.

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