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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 <linfon.william@iiiha.com>
Reply-To: linfon.william@net-c.com
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 00:32:14 +0100
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 secure our future in your
country by buying a home were we can live and do investment 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
your bank account 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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