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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: "Lieutenant General Joseph .H. Smith" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <lieutenant_general@qq.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 10:37:58 -0000
Subject: Urgent Attention ';..

Urgent Attention ';

I am Lieutenant General Joseph .H. Smith the Presidential Special
Initiative. I am mailing you in respect, of the present development
going on here in my country GHANA. I decided to contact you, after
much investigation which was carried out by the Bureau of National
Investigation (BNI) and also with the Ghana Police Service, in order
to make sure that my country is free from those fraudulent activities
which are going on here in Africa and for my country to also bear a
good name.

The Airport Authority detected two trunk boxes after been scanned, the
authorities detected that the boxes contains funds and Gold on your
name and email that has been tempered on, they were been smuggled into
the country by foreign Personnel who were on transit from London.
These men were trying to enter the country with the trunk boxes, when
the airport authority detected that these boxes contains some huge
amount of United State Dollars. After much investigation we found out
that these men were among those men spoiling the good name of Africa.
They opened up to us that they actually work with a Lotto company
before their dismissal and used the opportunity to perpetuate their
crimes, they told us that the funds inside the boxes was won by you,
but now they planned to turn their back on you and decided to take the
money all to themselves out of the country. We later found out on the
investigation that was carried out, these men are truly members of a
well established organization in United Kingdom.

As I write you this mail now, the three(3) men that were caught are now
in the custody of the Ghana Police Service over here in our country
Ghana, while we are trying to track the others left, because they have
proved to us that they belong to one organization. That is why we have
to reach you by your email address that was tagged in the boxes so we
can make arrangement on the delivery of the recovered boxes by a United
Nation Diplomatic Personnel to you.

Your urgent response will be very much appreciated as soon as you have
received this email. Thank you for your kind attention, for us to make
sure our beloved country Ghana, bears a good name. Please you are to
provide this below information's..

A: FULL NAMES:.........
B: ADDRESS:.........
C: DIRECT CONTACT PHONE NUMBER:.........
D: COUNTRY:.........
E: SCAN COPY OF ANY PASSPORT OR ID CARD:.........

This information will be required by the authorities in Ghana to draft the
new change of ownership in your name as the rightful owner of the funds in
our custody and also to verify the information given to us because the
documentations covering the boxes have been tampered on.

Please to remind you, don't belongs to scammers or any act of fraudulent
on internet. I will give more information to you as i await your response
immediately.

Honest Regards,
Lieutenant General Joseph .H. Smith
Presidential Special Initiative,Republic Of Ghana.

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