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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: Ikomo Manase <ikomoman1@gmail.com>
Reply-To: ikomom@yahoo.fr
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2012 14:34:58 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: REPLY


From Mr Ikomo Manase

I beg your excuse for the inconveniences this mail may cause to you. I am
Mr. Ikomo Manase a Banker and accountant with our bank here in Abidjan. I
am the personal accounts manager to one of our clients, a National of your
country, who owned a construction company here in Ivory Coast (Cote
D'Ivoire).

My client, his wife, and their three children were involved in the ill
fated Kenya Airways crash in the coasts of Abidjan in January 2006 in
which all passengers on board died. Since then I have made several
inquiries to your embassy to locate any of my clients extended relatives
but has been
unsuccessful.

After several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his relation over
the Internet, but still unsuccessful, so I decided to contact you. Of
particular interest is this huge deposit with our bank here in, where the
deceased has an account valued at about ($16.5, million US dollars). They
have issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or the bank will
declare the account unserviceable and thereby send the funds to the bank
treasury.

Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for some years
now, I will seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the
deceased, so that the proceeds of this account valued at ($16.5,million US
dollars) can be paid to you and then you and I can share the money 50 / 50

All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this deal
through I guarantee that this will be executed under all legitimate
arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. In your
reply mail, I want you to give me your full names, address, date of birth,
telephone and
fax numbers If you can handle this with me.

Thanking you for your anticipated cooperation.

Best Regards
Mr. Ikomo Manase

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