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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <mrs.wiredu1@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:16:28 +0000
Subject: Good Day.



Good Day.

My name is Mrs. Adoma Doris Wiredu. I am the wife of late Hon. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, former Ghana minister for Finance and Economic Planning, who died on the 24th of September 2008, after undergoing a surgical operation in South Africa.

Firstly I do like to apologize for any inconvenience this message may cause to you as we have not met before. I have to use this medium to contact you due to the nature of things around me. I have an urgent matter in my hands that I need your help to solve. This matter is about some money that my husband secured when he was alive and now that he is dead,I am under serious pressure because of this money.

There are speculations that my husband has lots of money with various Companies, so the Government has appointed some secret agents to monitor my activities.I want to have you as a foreign partner for this particular matter because I cannot handle any issue about money now due to what is going on.

This is a serious matter and if you are not confident of yourself please do not bother to reply me.You are guaranteed of full security back up as far as this matter is concern. Our family lawyer will take care of the necessary underground works to protect the interest of both parties. I am mostly concern about your capability to handle the amount at stake because it is a large sum of money.

Think about my message and if you are confident to work with me then get back in touch.
Thanks.
Kind Regard,Mrs.Wiredu

Anti-fraud resources: