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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: Otabil Mensah <recruitmente1@msn.com>
Reply-To: otabilmensahhh@gmail.com
Date: Tue, 27 Oct 2015 12:16:15 +0000
Subject: I NEED YOR ASSISTANCE


Good day, My Good Friend.

Before I tell you about myself i want you to please forgive me for
sending this mail without your permission.

Let me start by introducing myself properly to you. My name is Mr
Otabil Mensah, The Bank Manager of a Financial Institution. I am a
Ghanaian married with 3 kids, I am writing to solicit your assistance
in the transfer of US$7,500,000.00 Dollars into your account.

Listing, In the course of the last year 2014 end of the year report, I
discovered that my branch in which I am the Manager made excess profit
of Seven Million five Hundred Thousand Dollars [US$7,500,000.00], this
said funds discovered after i have already submitted an annual report
for that last year 2014 because it is my duty as the branch Manager to
send in a Financial Report to my head office in the capital city Accra
at the end of each year.

Even since that last year i have watched with keen interest and notice
that my bank head office are not aware of the fund and they will never
know of this excess, so i have since placed this amount of
$7,500,000.00 US Dollars on an Escrow Coded account without a
beneficiary (Anonymous) to avoid trace.

As an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to the fund
which make me to request for your assistance to receive the fund into
your bank account as a foreign partner , then we invest the funds in
your country, I want to assure you that their is no risk involved in
this. It's going to be a bank-to- bank transfer.

All I need from you is to stand as the depositor of the funds so that
my bank head office can transfer the funds to your account, I agree
that we share the funds 40% for you and 60% for me, also my 60% share
will be invested in your country under your care.

Please i immensely request for your optimum honesty and cooperation to
keep this matter as top secret between us, i believe that this is God
opportunity which i have been praying for. Kindly get back to me on
this id ( otabilmensahhh@gmail.com ) for a brief discussion on how to
proceed. Please do treat this information as Top secret as I can’t
afford to lose my job with the Bank Thanks for your understanding.

Regards
Mensah.

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