419 scam: "Kwame Ativor"<benny@vodafone.com.gh> To hear from you

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "we advice you" (this email uses bad English)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "Kwame Ativor" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <kwame2a@gmx.com>
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2016 20:27:38 -0000
Subject: To hear from you

To your kind consideration,

I know this letter will come to you as a surprise because you do not
know me before; my name is Kwame Ativor Monitoring Unit Cargo
Department, Bank of Ghana.

During the airlift of some presidential luggage to Europe I and my
colleagues in the above department unanimously decided to include
additional luggage only for our own benefit. I am obliged to contact you to assist us on getting
the luggage cleared from a firm in Madrid, Spain.

You will be entitled to a share of 30% of the total amount,70% of the
total amount will be for me me and my colleagues.

If this business terms and conditions are OK by you, kindly get back
and I will send you the Madrid company contacts to enable you
officially write to them as the beneficiary of the luggage with the
Approval Code.

Meanwhile, we advice you to keep the entire transaction close to
yourself until you received the luggage.

Yours Faithfully

Mr. Kwame Ativor
(Cargo Dept, BOG.)

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam