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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:

Fraud email example:

From: Dr Eric Addo <dreric-----addo1@att.net>
Reply-To: dr.eric.addo93@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:02:29 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Private Letter From Dr. Eric Addo / Awaiting Your Reply Soon




FROM THE DESK OF
DR. ERIC ADDO
BRANCH MANAGER
INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANK
KUMASI BRANCH GHANA.   Hello Dear My name is Dr. Eric  Addo, I am the branch manager of the International Commercial Bank Kumasi branch Ghana. I got your information during my search through the Internet. I am 47years of age and married with 3 lovely kids. It may interest you to hear that I am a Man of peace and I don't want problem, but I do not know how you will feel about this because you may have double mind. But I am telling you that this is real and you are not going to regret after doing this transaction with me. I only hope that we can assist each other. But if you don't want this business offer kindly forget it and I will not contact you again.
I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit both of us, as the regional manager of the International Commercial Bank; it is my duty to send in a financial report to my head office in the capital city (Accra-Ghana) at the end of each year. On the course of the last year 2010 end of last year report, I discovered that my branch in which I am the manager made five million seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar [6, 750.000.00] which my head office is not aware of it and will never be aware of. I have since place this fund on what we call SUSPENSE ACCOUNT without any beneficiary.
As an official of the bank I can not be directly connected to this fund,so this informed me of contacting you for us to work, so that you can assist and receive this fund into your bank account for us to SHARE.Mean While you will have 45% of the total fund, Note there are practically no risk involved, it will be bank to bank transfer, all I need from you is to stand claim as the original depositor of this fund who made the deposit with our branch so that my Head office can order the transfer to your designated bank account.
If you accept this offer to work with me, I will appreciate it very much as soon as I receive your response I will give you details on how we can achieve it successfully.  Best Regards
Dr.  Addo,

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