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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: "Dr. Mark Kwabena" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dr.mark-kwabena@msn.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Sep 2011 18:20:52 +0530
Subject: BUSINESS PROPOSAL

Dearest one,
I know this letter will definitely come to you as a surprise.
I am extending this proposal to you in my capacity as chairman of the contract review/audit committee scrutinizing all record covering executed contract awarded by ministry of power and steel here in Ghana.
My colleagues and i have discovered some floating amount of $25,500,000.00
(Twenty five million, five hundred thousand united state dollars), owing to a deliberate act of over invoicing and inflating of contract value by some government officials.
This money ($25,500,000.00), has already been approved for payment by the government and it is secure under contract no: mmp/rg/v12088/ga/8098/8,job completion certificate no:677000000242mmps/a4, of 20th may 2009.
As top civil servants we are not authorized to operate foreign bank account and this is why we have contacted you, to stand as the contractor so that we will use your bank account to transfer this money outside Ghana.
We have accepted you as our foreign partner and will now regularize the approvals to you as the trust beneficiary and the contractor.
As soon we receive your acceptance, we shall inform you of the necessary requirement from you to facilitate the transfer.
Let us use this opportunity to export the benefit of this sum.
We have resolved to give you 20% of the total sum as compensation for your assistance, 70% is for me and my colleagues here in Ghana, 10% is set aside to cover every expenses made in the course of the transaction.
Please don't ignore this proposal be rest assured that all the movement and the transfer of this sum will be done according to the rule of law.
I will be waiting for your answer.
Dr. Mark Kwabena
Tel:+233-543-444-334

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