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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: Kofi Quartey <kofiquartey@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 14:38:25 +0000
Subject: Kofi


Hi Dear,
I am Mr Kofi Quartey,I work with a safe keeping company in Ghana, I need your assistance to retrieve $16.2m and 75kg of Gold deposited in my company, I have access to make this happen, since I am the vault manager of the security firm and do have access to the deposits document.
I contacted you because I know you are capable to assist and I assure you 100% success in the deal, I do believe you can assist me in this deal. The Deceased has not left any notification of the next of Kin and i will arrange one through an attorney, please I want you to stand as his partner in business, so that we can retrieve it, sell and share the proceed.
If you are interested, please respond back to me urgently and I will give you further details. Thanks, Sincerely,
Mr Kofi Quartey

Anti-fraud resources: