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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: "Kofi Mensah" (may be fake)
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:59:03 +1000
Subject: Urgent

FROM THE DESK OF
MR. KOFI MENSAH
BRANCH MANAGER
ECO BANK OF GHANA
KANESHIE FIRST LIGHT BRANCH
ACCRA NORTH GHANA

Dear Friend,

My name is Mr.Kofi Mensah, I am the Branch manager of the Eco Bank
of Ghana Kaneshie branch Ghana. I got your information during my search
through the Internet. I am 44years of age and married with 3 lovely kids. It
may interest you to hear that I am a man of PEACE and don't want problem,
but i don't know how you will feel about this mail because you might feel
that its scam yes there are many scammers. but am telling you that this is
real and you are not going to regret after doing this transaction with me. I
only hope we can assist each other. But If you don't want this business
offer kindly forget it as I will not contact you again.

I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit both of us, as the
Branch manager of the Eco Bank of Ghana; it is my duty to send in a
financial report to my head office in the capital city Accra-Ghana at the
end of each year. On the course of the year 2011 end of the year report, I
discovered that my branch in which I am the manager made Ten Million,
Seven Hundred and fifty thousand dollar [10,750.000.00] which my head office
are not aware of and will never be aware of. I have since place this fund on
what we call SUSPENSE ACCOUNT without any beneficiary.

As an officer of the bank I can not be directly connected to this money, so
this informed my contacting you for us to work so that you can assist
receive this money into your bank account for us to SHARE. While you will
have 30% of the total fund. Note there are practically no risk involved, it
will be bank to bank transfer, all I need from you is to stand claim as the
original depositor of this fund who made the deposit with our branch so that
my Head office can order the transfer to your designated bank account.

If you accept this offer to work with me, I will appreciate it very much,
Also you can forward your private Telephone number for speedy relation on
this matter. As soon as I receive your response I will details you on how we
can achieve it successfully.

Best Regards
Mr.Kofi Mensah

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