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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: "Mr.Johnson Scott" <distagon_25mm@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: "Mr.Johnson Scott" <imfofficebeninrepublic@yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 4 Apr 2015 19:22:30 +0900 (JST)
Subject: INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND


INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
23 HERBERT MARCULARY AVENUE
COTONOU-BENIN REPUBLIC
FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY (F.C.T.)

I am Sir. Johnson Scott, a highly placed official officer of the International Monetary Fund, Cotonou-Benin republic, West Africa (I.M.F.). I went to the Western Union this morning to examine exactly what is going on about the documents we request from you to enable us permit the Western  Union Office to release  the payment to you and Dr. Philip Desmond the Western Union Operation Manager told me that you called them Scammer. Is that true?

 I'm a highly placed official officer in I.M.F Office Benin republic and I stand hereby telling you that they are not Scammer. I know them as Western Union Money Transfer Office (WUMTO) . We are International Monetary Fund unit, Cotonou-Benin republic and we monitor every transaction in Benin republic.

 So, when we discovered that Dr. Philip Desmond wanted to start transferring payment funds to you we then put everything that they are doing on hold and asked them to provide you or they will be arrested so Dr. Philip Desmond told us that you are in Not In the country and it's difficult for you to come here. So that was reason why we gave you the $100.00 to pay to enable us allow the Western Union, Cotonou- Benin republic to start transferring the funds to you.

The bill of $100.00 that they asked you to pay is because Dr. Philip said that you can't be able to trip down here and sign the IMF Tax Certificate and IMF Insurance Certificate so that was the reason why we gave you the two option either to pay the $100.00 for we to issue the documents or you come down here and sign the documents with your hands. This $100.00.00 is just to enable our Attorney go the Federal High Court, Cotonou- Benin republic so that the court will approve the documents.
 
We are looking forward to hearing from you. For more information on this matter.
Receiver's Name: Sunday Onyibor
Country:  Benin Republic.
City: Cotonou
Text Question: A?
Text Answer: B
Amount: $100.00
MTCN Number===
Sender's Name:===

We are looking forward to hear from you.
Thank you.
Director:
Sir. Johnson Scott.
+229-9958-9072

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