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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: Emmanuel Kwesi <whuw49@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ben225@voila.fr
Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 06:29:46 +0100
Subject: Good to know you

Dear Sir,

How are you today? I hope fine.

Before I proceed i would like to introduce myself to you. My name is
Emmanuel Kwesi a staff of one the Commercial Banks in Republic of Ghana. I
have a confidential business proposition for you. On September, 2005 An
oil consultant / contractor with the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation,
Mr Jamel Ismail made a numbered time of fixed deposit for twelve calendar
months valued $12.5m. Upon maturity, I sent a routine notification to his
forwarding address but got no reply.

After a month, i sent a reminder and finally discovered from his contact
employers, that he died along with his family in auto crash. On further
investigation, I found out that he did not leave a WILL and all attempts to
trace his next of kin were fruitless. I also made further investigation and
discovered that, he did not declare any next of kin in all his official
documents, including his Bank Deposit paperwork. This sum of US$12.5m is
still in our Bank and the interest is being rolled over with the principal
sum at the end of each year. No one will come forward to claim it.

According to our banking ethics and law , at the expiration of 7years, the
money will revert to the government coffers if nobody applies to claim the
funds. Now, my proposal is that I would want you, as a foreigner to stand
as the next of kin to Mr Jamel Ismail so that the fruits of this old man's
labor will not get into the hands of some corrupt government officials in
my country.

This is simple,
1)I would want you to provide to me immediately your full names and address
so that the attorney will prepare all the necessary documents and
affidavits, which will put you in place as the next of kin to this fixed
deposit. (2) We shall employ the services of an attorney for drafting all
the necessary documents in your favor for the transfer of this money to you
as the beneficiary / next of kin of Mr Jamel Ismail The money will be paid
into your account for us to share in the ratio of 50% for you and 50% for
me.

There is no risk as all the paper work for this transaction will be done by
the attorney and my position as a staff of this department, guarantees the
successful execution of this deal. If you are interested, reply immediately
via my private email address for confidential reasons (
reachme_here@rediffmail.com). Upon your response I shall then give you
more details and relevant documents that will help you understand the deal
very well.

Kindly observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that this
transaction would be most profitable for both of us because I shall require
your assistance to invest my share in your country. Send me a mail through
my private email address to enable me give you more details.

Regards,
Emmanuel Kwesi

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