419 scam: "Agent Paul Howard (FinCEN)" <paulhoward@fincen.org> Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

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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:
- "million united state dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "united state dollar" (this email uses bad English)
- "paulhoward@shqiptar.eu" (this email address has been used in a known scam)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "Agent Paul Howard (FinCEN)" <paulhoward@fincen.org> (may be fake)
Reply-To: paulhoward@shqiptar.eu
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2018 08:15:45 +0900
Subject: Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network
Headquarters Vienna,Virginia.
2070 Chain Bridge Road,
Suite 200. Vienna, VA 22182
E-Mail: paulhoward@shqiptar.eu

Our Ref: FinCEN/0N8/CONTRACT NO.856.
Motto: Financial,Crimes,Enforcement

Attn Recipient:

This is agent Paul Howard, we were sent by the Acting Director of The
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (Jamal El-Hindi), and we are
currently in Africa as an FinCEN / United States delegate that have been
delegated to investigate foreign transactions going on in Africa. my
reason of coming down from United States to Africa is to make sure we get
all the fraudsters arrested which we have arrested some of them and before
the end of next week I believe we will recover every overdue inheritance
or compensation fund that belong to you and other citizens that have not
been able to receive their funds because of the high fee demanded by the
fraudsters.

So kindly stop every communication with any other email or phone call you
receive until we complete the investigations we have at hand, I want you
to keep everything to your self to avoid those scammers notice that we are
in their country for investigation until we get all of them arrested.

I have already recover $4.5 Million United State Dollars which we
requested that you can forward your delivery address so that we can
register it to DHL or UPS Delivery company for them to have it deliver to
you online without any delay as we have instructed the bank where your
fund was deposited to issue an ATM card for you so that we can register it
for delivery to your address you will send to us.

The details needed from you to enable them complete the delivery to you is
below.

Full Name/
Address /
Cell Phone/
Country/

Once we confirm this details we will register your ATM card with the
delivery company and notify you with the tracking number so that you will
be monitoring the delivery, if you receive any other email or phone call
apart from us make sure you forward them to me so that I can confirm if
they are legit or not.

We are here to serve you better.

Regards,
Agent Paul Howard (FinCEN)
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam