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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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.

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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • ",500,000" (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)
  • "there is no risk involved" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
• This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
  

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. Peter Kwaku" <peterkwakwu@mail.ge>
Reply-To: kwakupeter@adinet.com.uy
Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:44:10 +0400
Subject: Greetings From Mr. Peter Kwaku, How Are =?UTF-8?Q?You=3F?=


Compliment,

My name is Mr. Kwaku Peter, a politician and an immediate past member of
Ghana Parliamentary (MP).. I am a member of my party’s executive
committee on contract awards.

My aim of contacting you is to crave your indulgence to assist me in
securing some funds abroad for safe keeping which incidentally was kept to
help me finance the just concluded elections campaign last December 7th
2008, which the winner was finally decided through a runoff election held
on 28th December 2008. Unfortunately for my party the National Patriotic
Party (NPP) lost the government seat to our opposition Party the National
Democratic Congress (NDC).

But with my immediate assistance, and contact, I was able to deposit some
money in a security vault with a commercial bank in Ghana pending when I
will found a trustworthy person to move out the fund from Ghana to overseas
bank account for business investment.

The need to contact you arose from the fact that the present elected
government vow to crack down on past immediate government functionaries of
(NPP) and trying to trace all the funds that was made through contract
awards and other mouth watering deals during our tenure in the office from
the year 2000 to 2008, if they succeed in tracing this fund to us, they
will seize it and thereby incapacitating my life time opportunities.

I wish to relocate this fund in a foreigner's name to avoid any trace. All
I need from you is an assurance that you can handle the amount involved
(US$19,500,000) comfortably and that I can also trust you.

Be fully rest assured that there is no risk involved since I have taken
care of every underground work relating to the perfection of this
opportunity. I want you to immediately inform me of your willingness in
assisting and co-operating with me, so that I can send you full details of
this transaction. I will also appreciate if you can maintain the
confidential nature of this letter and the whole transaction process.

Please if you are not interested in this business, let me know in time, so
that I can contact someone else.

Yours sincerely,
Mr. Kwaku Peter

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam