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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: "Mr Kweku Bedu-Addo" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bmrkweku@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2015 02:24:28 -0500
Subject: Re: DID YOU RECEIVE MY FIRST EMAIL

Hello,

I’m Mr. Kweku Bedu-Addo a citizen of Ghana. I work with Standard Chartered Bank, Accra Ghana. I have in my bank the existence of a huge sum of amount that was deposited under the same surname as yours. The fund is now without any claim because my associate that bears the same surname with you is dead. I want your cooperation so as to make the bank send you the fund as the beneficiary and next of kin to the fund. This fund was an excess fund which my bank recover from the past fiscal years and i used my associate who has same surname as yours to hold the funds, since his death the claim has not been made.

This transaction will be of a great mutual assistance to us. Send me your reply of interest directly to me so that I can give you more detail of the transaction. This transaction must be confidential, at the recipient of your reply, i will send copies of the deposit certificate of the fund and also the incorporation certificate of the company that generated the fund which we did to cover the fund.
I am waiting for your urgent respond. Send along your phone number if possible for private discussion.

Best regard,
Mr Kweku Bedu-Addo
CEO Standard Chartered Bank Ghana

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