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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: "CustomerCare" <CustomerCare@firstwesternbank.net>
Reply-To: martinzphilips@kimo.com
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:07:06 +0500
Subject: Attention Please




Attention Please,

I am Martinz Philips. (Customer Service officer) First Western Bank Ghana.

We received instruction from our financial authorities and BNI
Investigation Unit of Ghana to remit the contractual/inheritance funds
pending unclaimed since. While we are processing your payment file today,
it was discovered that your fund beneficiary name has been changed and
replaced. As a matter of the change, the bank's remittance director
ordered that we stop the payment until we get a mandate from you
authenticating this change. If you are aware of this development, please
kindly confirm to us the name of the new beneficiary but if not please
furnish us with the following information to enable update our data here
before subsequent processing and transfer of your fund $7.5 Million
Dollar without further delay.

Full Name:
Full Address:
Date Of Birth:
Nationality:
Country of residence:
Mobile telephone:
Any Valid means of Identification(scan copy):

Upon the receipt of the aforementioned information, we will swing into
action to process and remit your fund without further delay. We appeal to
you to remain calm while we do our best to make sure that your fund is
transfer to you.

I am waiting for your urgent reply.

Sincerely,
Martinz Philips



Anti-fraud resources: