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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: "From Mr C. Lehman." <cl.connect@inbox.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: www.clehman@inbox.com
Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 12:36:58 +0100
Subject: From Mr C. Lehman.

Message: From: Mr C. Lehman.
Auditoire in Chief,
Ministry 232;re Des Finances
Cotonou,Republique du Bénin.
E-mail: www.clehman@inbox.com


Dear Friend,

Pardon my indignation if this message comes to you as a surprise and if it offends you as I wrote without your prior consent and through this medium.

I am Mr. C. Lehman, a retiring chief auditor in the Ministry of Finance here in the Republic of Benin. I got your contact when searching for a reliable, honest and trustworthy person to entrust this business with and was simply inspired to pick you. I have the mandate of my partners to seek your consent for the transfer and investment of the sum of
US$22.000.000.00(Twenty two million United States dollars only) into your personal or company's bank account.

The funds is a residue of the over invoiced industrial contract bills awarded by my Ministry to some Foreign firms. This DEAL was deliberately hatched and carefully protected with all loopholes sealed. As the auditor, I have the cooperation and mandate of the Finance Director and the Permanent Secretary to seek the assistance of a willing foreigner to provide us with the facilities to transfer this money out of the West African sub-region for investment purposes. This is borne out of the non-stable and spurious political nature of the sub- region.

The original contractors have been duly paid while this balance is left in an escrow account awaiting claims by any foreign company of our choice. We intend to pay this money out now since we will all be retiring soon and the contract award committee is also winding up their activities. Based on
the laws and ethics of employment here, we as civil servants are not allowed to operate foreign accounts. This is more reason why we needed your Assistance in providing an account that can sustain this fund for safekeeping and future investment with your comprehensive advise, assistance and partnership.

We have agreed, as the account owner in this deal to offer you 35% of the total sum as compensation while 60% will be held in trust for me and my Colleagues. 5% will be used to defray any incidental charges and costs if any during the course of the transaction.

This transaction will be successfully concluded within 14 working days If you accord us your unalloyed cooperation.

You should provide us with the following:

YOUR COMPANY'S NAME AND ADDRESS.
YOUR PERSONAL TELEPHONE AND FAX NUMBERS.
YOUR PERSONAL ADDRESS.

Upon the receipt of this information, we shall prepare the necessary contract papers and source for the payment approvals to back up the payment to you. As with the case of all organized deals, we solicit for unreserved confidentiality and utmost secrecy in this business.

I will appreciate you get back to me as soon as possible.

Use my secure E-mail address:


I await your urgent response accordingly.

Yours faithfully,
Mr C. Lehman.



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