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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: "nana mensah" <nanamensah10@gmail.com>
Reply-To: nanamensah30@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:24:21 +0100
Subject: VERY URGENT FROM NANA MENSAH


From:Nana Mensah.
The Manager Standard Chartered Bank,
First Light Branch
Accra Ghana.

Attn:

I got your contact during my search for a reliable, honest and a
trustworthy person to entrust this huge transfer project with.
My name is Mr.Nana Mensah. I am the manager of the Standard Chartered
Bank, First Light Branch, Accra Ghana . I am a Ghanaian, married with
two kids.
I am writing to solicit for your assistance in the transfer of funds
valued at $5,620,000.00 (five million six hundred and twenty thousand
United States Dollars.)

This fund is the excess of what my branch in which I am the Manager
made as profit during the last annual audition. I have already
submitted an approved end of the year report for the year 2007 to my
head office in Accra here and they will never know of this excess. I
have since then, placed this amount of value $5,620,000.00 USD in a
suspense escrow account without a beneficiary.

As an officer of the bank, I cannot directly be connected to this
money thus I am impelled to request for your assistance to receive
this Money into your bank account. I intend to part 30% of this fund
to you as compensation while 70% shall be for me. I do stress that
there are practically no risk involved in this. It is going to be a
bank- to -bank transfer. All I need from is to stand as the original
depositor of the fund.
If you accept this offer, I will appreciate your timely response.

Yours Sincerely,
Nana Mensah.

Anti-fraud resources: