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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: Adam Cobb <adamcobb1960@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2018 10:12:30 -0800
Subject: Hello

Good day to you, I guess this might sound strange to you receiving an
email from on unknown person. My name is Mr. Adam Cobb. I am a banker
and citizen of Ghana. I write to contact you for a very important and
confidential business transaction which I believe will benefit both of
us after completion. I am contacting you after a careful thought that
you might be capable of handling this top business transaction which i
am revealing to you now.

In 2014, A customer, an international businessman made a fixed deposit
for 36 months, valued at US$12.5 Million with my bank. I was his
account officer. The maturity date for this deposit contract was 16th
of September 2017. A month before and after maturity date, a reminder
was sent to the customer to ascertain if he will roll over the deposit
or have the contract sum withdrawn but no response. On the 27th of
December 2017, another message was sent all to no avail. Finally on
the 24th of january,2018 the news of his death came to limelight.

The said customer died with his entire family in a plane crash on the
31st of December, 2017 off the coast of Australia. My reason for
contacting you is because the deposit document which the bank have,
has no beneficiary or next of kin in it which prompted my contacting
you.

Therefore, I am seeking your co-operation to present you as his
business partner and the beneficiary of the fund since no one was
named as the next of kin or the beneficiary. With this arrangement,
the bank will pay the money to you. All you need to do is to indicate
your interest and we will take it from there. Arrangement is in place
to immediately slot in your details once received to the bank
information network data to reflect you as the next of kin.

If you are interested and willing to handle this deal, I intend that
you retain 45% of the funds while 50% shall be for me. At completion,
i will take my leave to join you in your country for my share or be
transferred to me. The remaining 5% will be for any expenses that
might come up at the course of the transfer. Please keep this
proposal as a top secret or delete it if you are not interested at
all. I look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,

Adam Cobb

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