419 scam: "Mr. Anthony Kofi Mensah"<mr.ankomens@gmail.com> Greetings, Your Consent is required from Mr. Anthony K. Mensah

joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet

Try our spam filter!
Free trial for 30 days

Home

About Us

Spam

419/Nigeria

Fraud

Contact

"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:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million 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)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. Anthony Kofi Mensah" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrkofamensah@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 05:13:58 -0700
Subject: Greetings, Your Consent is required from Mr. Anthony K. Mensah

From, Mr. Anthony Kofi Mensah
Accra, Ghana.
August 20th, 2009.

Dear friend,

Compliments of the day,

I want to solicit your strict confidence in this transaction and I pray that my decision to contact you will be given a genuine approval considering the fact that we have not known each other before now.

Before Proceeding I feel quite safe dealing with you in this important transaction. However, this correspondence is unofficial and private, and it should be treated as such. I decided to reach you via e-mail because presently i am in desperate need of a trust worthy foreign person for this proposal. Although this medium is not proper.

I am Mr. Anthony Kofi Mensah, I am a banker by profession wonderfully married with kids. I am the head of Operations (Transactions Services Unit) Department of my bank Guaranty Trust Bank Ghana Ltd and currently holding the post of Head of the Vetting Committee of the Millennium Challenge Account which is a Payment Scheme initiated by the newly inaugurated president of Ghana to offset all due payments payable to all foreign contactors.

As the head of the Vetting Committee, I have the opportunity of transferring US$12.6 Million Dollars from the left over funds with your assistance and co-operation since we have settled and paid all the beneficiaries of which we used part of the money that was set aside for this disbursement scheme yet we have left over funds. At this occurrence, I have decided to safely transfer the sum of US$12.6 Million Dollars to your custody via bank-to-bank transfer for us to share evenly.

I will send further details of the transaction to you as soon as I receive your Full Names, Contact Address, Telephone and Mobile Numbers. If you follow my directives, the fund will be transferred to your account within Fourteen (14) working days and will be shared on what we will agree on.

Trusting to hear from you immediately

Thank you,

Mr. Anthony Kofi Mensah

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam