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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: "Alfonso Williams" <alfonso.w@iiiha.com>
Reply-To: alfonso.w@aim.com
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 16:36:52 -0300
Subject: Re: Resp sir




Hello dearest

Please permit our introduction. I am Alfonso Williams and my sister name
is Linda. I am 19 years old while my little sister is 15 years old. We are
from Republic of Sierra Leone. We want to do investment in your country
and at the same time further our education. We are writing to seek your
kind help and advice if it will be possible for you to assist us and
receive the money and also guild us through the investment. I found your
contact address through my late father's international business directory
and I decided to contact you to seek your kind assistance in helping us to
relocate to your country for further studies and for investment of the
money we inherited from our late father. We lost our parents few months
ago in a ghastly motor accident. My mother died instantly when the
accident happened but my father sustained a very severe injury which
resulted to his untimely death four days after he was rushed down to a
private hospital. May there soul rest in perfect peace. My late father
spent his whole life in the building and construction industry as an
engineer. Shortly before this unfortunate incident, my father had informed
me about an important business deal he had executed with some of his
colleagues in the office. He told me that he diverted some money totaling
eight million three hundred thousand dollars which they realized from the
execution of some government contracts that was awarded to them. He told
me that he deposited the money in the bank in Abidjan Cote d’Ivoire.

Now we want to finally relocate to your country with this money so that we
can invest it properly and further our education. We are now in Abidjan
Cote d’Ivoire and have succeeded in locating the bank where my late father
deposited the money and have identified ourselves properly and also
informed them about the sad fate my family had suffered. All the efforts
we made to have the money were not fruitful because of our age and the
conditions attached to the deposit. The bank said that my late father
deposited the money in their bank escrow suspense account for safe keep.
We will need your help in the following ways, to help us stand as our
guardian and as our late father's overseas business partner over this
money so that the bank will release and transfer the money to you and also
bring us over to your country to further our college education and then
make arrangement for a good business investment which you will invest with
the money on our behalf. I hope with your help we will have the money
successfully transferred to your bank account and we will have a better
life to live in your country under your guardianship.

It is true that we do not know you in person but i pray and hope that you
have it in your heart to assist us with all sincerity and honesty. You
will guild us and invest the money and manage the investment until we are
capable. Please if you can help us, i will want you to send your contact
information that the bank can use to contact you so that i can make your
name available to the bank as our guardian overseas that will receive the
money on our behalf. We are willing to give you any amount which you will
wish to have after receiving the money in your safe bank account. Thank
you and May God bless you and your family as you help us achieve our dream
of relocating to your country to start a new life and further our
education under your guardianship.

Sincerely
Alfonso and Linda

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