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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. Franklin Cooks" <franklincookshod@yahoo.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2016 15:57:31 +0800
Subject: Contact Approved DEPT for transfer of your Funds



--

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
Special investigation & reconciliation center London UK
St Ethel burga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace
78 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AG UK
Email: franklincookshod@yahoo.com

To Person of Concern,

Brief introduction, we are a team of financial analyst and special
investigators; we were employed by the Africa Development Bank to
carry out special analyses on financial misconduct on approved payment
due to foreign beneficiaries in accordance to the United Nations
submit advise to member states on financial control. We have financial
reports on approved payment from several African Banks, Finance &
Security Companies including Lottery Agents. We are charged presently
with the sole responsibility of vetting and scrutinizing all approved
sum for the past 35yrs.

This letter contains facts that have led to several stop orders and
concerns that were issued to suspend the transfer of your payment to
you the beneficiary.

During an in-depth verification exercise instituted by this team of
financial analyst on your payment, I discovered the fact and after
proper consideration I have decided to contact you. Be informed that
several persons are behind the delay why you have not received your
payment. They are not directly after your approved sum rather they are
after the accrued interest they make by allowing your funds stay in
foreign banks and also with local banks, as of the time this
investigation was concluded, your accrued interest is US$2.8M. It is a
known fact that they can’t steal or divert your approved sum but
causing Several delays and big financial obligation as obstacle to buy
time and have the principal sum stay on fixed deposit to make interest
on the funds.

As the head of this delegation, I have advised that all approved sum
in foreign reserve and local banks should be recalled back to the apex
bank so that a re-approval will be done and all obligation holding any
Beneficiary such as your case is looked into and approved for
immediate payment. Don’t be surprised that most of your beneficiary
status information has been changed and you only get simple details of
payment information while these underdogs monitor all procedures and
ensure that they still pin down these funds for their personal
interest.

It is very important you reconfirm your details such as,
1, Your Full names, 2, Your Full address, 3, Your Direct Phone Number,
4, A copy of your ID.

This will allow us ensure that we are dealing with the right
beneficiary and also ensure that your beneficiary status information
are correct in your payment file. Upon receipt of these details, we
will immediately pass our recommendations to the African development
Bank to proceed without any delay to ensure that you the beneficiary
receive the accrued interest of US$2.8M on your approved sum before
due arrangement is made for the total sum.

Yours Sincerely,

Mr. Franklin Cooks
Head of Delegation
St Ethel burga's
Centre for
Reconciliation and
Peace.

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