419 scam: Lieutenant Ken William <lt.kenwilliams@usaarmy.com> DEAR FRIEND

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

Fraud email example:

From: Lieutenant Ken William <lt.kenwilliams@usaarmy.com>
Reply-To: lieutenant.kenwilliamdavid@americamail.com
Date: Wed, 07 Jul 2010 21:40:14 +0200
Subject: DEAR FRIEND

Dear Friend,

I know this might come to you as a surprise. my name is Lieutenant Ken
William, a US Army serving in the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq. I
want you to read this mail carefully, understand it and get back to me.

Basically, on Wednesday, 30 April, 2003, 12:28 GMT 13:28 UK, I and my
men found over USD$600 Million in Saddam Hussein's hideout in Baghdad,
we sent some back to the Iraq government after counting it in a
classified location, but we also kept some behind for ourselves. Some
of the money we shared among ourselves worth over USD$200 Million, and
I have kept mine for a while here in a very secured place since then,
just like many others, but now our new president OBAMA is making plans
on pulling us out of Iraq, right now we have left the
major cities of Iraq.

So I need someone that is not related to me, to help me pull this cash
out, everything is ready, I just need someone I can trust because we
have lost a box of gold to someone that said he will help us last time
and I won't like to make the same mistake, the total amount of money I
am trying to move out is USD$10 Million. You can view the link below
to verify my statement.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm

If you can handle this, let me know immediately, you will receive 20%
of the money and you don't have to pay me any money, all you need to
do is to find a safe place where you can keep the box till we leave
Iraq. Get back to me
immediately.

Lieutenant Ken William

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