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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: BERNARD AWOTWI <bernardawo2011@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 03 Sep 2012 19:26:00 +0500
Subject: Attention My Good Friend



--
Attention:
I wish to inform you that this letter is not a hoax mail and I urge you
to treat it serious. We want to transfer to overseas account
($18,500.000.00 USD) Eighteen million Five Hundred Thousand United
States Dollars) from our Bank here in Ghana. I want to ask you, If you
are not capable to handle it quietly look for a reliable and honest
person who will be capable and fit to provide either an existing bank
account or to set up a new Bank a/c immediately to receive this money,
even an empty a/c can serve to receive this money, as long as you will
remain honest to me till the end for this important business trusting in
you and believing in
God that you will never let me down either now or in the future.

I am Bernard Awotwi, presently promoted to Auditor General in one of
the banks here in Ghana. During the course of our auditing last week, I
discovered a floating fund in an account opened in the bank in 2000 and
since 2004 nobody has operated on this account again, after going
through some old files in the records I discovered that the owner of the
account died without a [Heir/WILL] hence the money is floating and if I
do not remit this money out urgently it will be forfeited for nothing.

The owner of this account is an American and a great industrialist and
a resident of Alaska State, who unfortunately lost his life in the
plane, crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January 31
2000, including his wife and only daughter leaving nobody to claim the
money. No other person knows about this account or any thing concerning
it, the account has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to
me as well that the account is a secret account. The total amount
involved is ($18,500.000.00 USD) Eighteen million Five Hundred Thousand
United States Dollars) and we wish to transfer this money into a safe
foreigners account abroad. But I don't know any foreigner; I am only
contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be approved to a
local person here, but to a foreigner who has information about the
account, which I shall give to you upon your positive response.

I am revealing this to you with believe in God that you will never let
me down in this business, you are the first and the only person that I
am contacting for this business, so please reply urgently so that I will
inform you the next step to take urgently. I need your strong assurance
that you will never let me down, and the key bank official who is deeply
involved with me in this business. I guarantee you that this transaction
will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you
from any breach of the law the bank official will destroy all documents
of the transaction immediately you receive this money leaving no trace
to any place. I will use my position and influence to obtain all legal
approvals for onward transfer of this money to your account with
appropriate clearance from the relevant ministries and foreign exchange
departments.

At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 30% of the total
amount, 70% will be for us I and the bank officials. I look forward to
hearing from you as soon as possible if you are interested,as well on
replying to my private e-mail address(bernardawo2011@gmail.com)send me
your account details with your private phone number together with your
International Passport or Drivers License to enable me send an
application to the bank on your behalf


Thank you for your time and attention.
Bernard Awotwi
+233 54 360 4473

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