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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: george mensah <george.mensah1921@gmail.com>
Reply-To: george.mensah0215@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2015 23:31:55 +0000
Subject: Greetings

Greetings,

How are you doing? and It's my hope that my mail meets you well; I'm
advocate George Mensah, a legal representative to a national of your
country who passes away in the year 2009, he dwelt and worked here in
Ghana, for more than 20 years as a contractor. I am writing this
letter to you because there is something important I want us to work
on; regarding his left over estate. He has the same last name with
you, so I seek your consent to present you as a member of his family
in order to claim the $8.7m he left in a bank here. I was his personal
Attorney before he died and I have been mandated by his bank to
present his next of kin or any member of his family to claim this
fund. So I would like to present you as his cousin due to the
similarity in your last names so we claim this fund. If you are
interested to work with me on this deal,we'll be sharing the fund
equal(50 - 50). Kindly indicate your interest for this claim by
getting back so that I will give you full details about the deal.

Thanks in advance as I await your positive response.

Sincerely,
George Mensah (Esq)

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