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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: John Walker <jw09984@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 2017 13:24:00 +0100
Subject: Greetings from Abidjan

Greetings from Abidjan


Before I introduce myself, I wish to inform you that this letter is
not a hoax mail and I urge you to treat it serious. We want to
transfer to overseas account ($160,000.000.00 ) One hundred and sixty
million US DOLLARS from a prime Bank here in Abidjan. I want to ask
you, If you are not capable to quietly look for a reliable and honest
person who will be capable and fit to provide either an existing bank
account or to set up a new Bank a/c immediately to receive this money,
even an empty a/c can serve to receive this money, as long as you will
remain honest to me till the end for this important business trusting
in you and believing in God that you will never let me down either now
or in future

I am Mr. John Walker, presently promoted to Auditor General in one of
the banks here in Abidjan cote d'ivoire. During the course of our
auditing last week, I discovered a floating fund in an account opened
in the bank in 2012 and since 2017 nobody has operated on this account
again, after going through some old files in the records I discovered
that the owner of the account died without a [Heir/WILL] hence the
money is floating and if I do not remit this money out urgently it
will be forfeited for nothing. The owner of this account is Mr. Keith
Lathan an American and a great industrialist and a resident of Alaska
State, who unfortunately lost his life in the Auto crash in Alaska ,
which crashed on January 31 2014, including his wife and only daughter
leaving nobody to claim the money. No other person knows about this
account or any thing concerning it, the account has no other
beneficiary and my investigation proved to me as well that the account
is a secret account.

The total amount involved is One hundred and sixty million US DOLLARS
only [160,000.000.00 DOLLARS ] and we wish to transfer this money into
a safe foreigners account abroad. But I don't know any foreigner; I am
only contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be
approved to a local person here, but to a foreigner who has
information about the account, which I shall give to you upon your
positive response. I am revealing this to you with believe in God that
you will never let me down in this business, you are the first and the
only person that I am contacting for this business, so please reply
urgently so that I will inform you the next step to take urgently. I
need your strong assurance that you will never let us down, me and a
key bank official who is deeply involved with me in this business.

I guarantee you that this transaction will be executed under a
legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the
law. The bank official will destroy all documents of the transaction
immediately you receive this money leaving no trace to any place. I
will use my position and influence to obtain all legal approvals for
onward transfer of this money to your account with appropriate
clearance from the relevant ministries and foreign exchange
departments At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 30%
of the total amount, 70% will be for us.

PLEASE, TREAT THIS PROPOSAL AS TOP SECRET.

I look forward to hear from you.

Best Regards

Mr. John Walker.

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