419 scam: "Mr.Ousmane S.Conte" <az1_az1@msn.com> Goodwill Partner...

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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:

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:
- "million united states 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)
- "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
- "foreign exchange" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr.Ousmane S.Conte" <az1_az1@msn.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: contes_family@msn.com
Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 04:49:31 +0800
Subject: Goodwill Partner...

Attention,

I implore that you permit me to contact you first via this very medium seeing that we have not met anywhere before now. I am the first son of the late Lansana Conté president of Guinea Conakry.

With due respect, I urge you to treat my information serious. My family wants to transfer to overseas account ($126,000.000.00 USD) One Hundred and Twenty Six Million United States Dollars) from one of the prime bank here. I humbly solicit that if you can not handle this; to quietly look for another reliable and honest person like yourself who will be capable and fit to provide either an existing bank account or to set up a new Bank a/c immediately to receive this money,even an empty a/c with zero balance can serve to receive this fund. It is of great essence that you remain honest till the end for this urgent transaction.

It might interest you to know that our very aim/consensus of contacting you as a foreigner is based on the fact that the above mentioned fund cannot be approved to a local person here, but to a foreigner who has information about the account, which I shall give to you upon your positive response. I am revealing this to you in confidence that you will never betray me.

Your strong assurance of safety is required; that you won’t let us down both my family and a key official who is deeply involved in this transaction. On my honor, I guarantee you that this transaction IS 100% RISK FREE and would be executed under legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. The bank official will destroy all documents of the transaction immediately you receive this fund leaving no trace to any place.More also, a solid arrangement to obtain all legal approvals for the onward transfer of the funds into your account with appropriate clearance from the relevant ministries and foreign exchange departments shall be done.

At the conclusion of this transaction, you will be given 35% of the total amount, 60% will be for my family while the remaining 5% will be for the expenses.

Please response immediately and do not forget to confirm the private nature of your email address when replying this message.This would help protect our information better.

Thanks and i await on your immediate reply.

kindest regards.
Mr.Ousmane S.Conte.
+22466528332

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam