419 scam: Ahmed Sherrif <sherrif538@msn.com> REPLY ME URGENT PLEASE

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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:

An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
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)
- "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "million us 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.
This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
- ahmedsherrf@gmail.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Ahmed Sherrif <sherrif538@msn.com>
Reply-To: <ahmedsherrf@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Jul 2011 16:21:30 +0000
Subject: REPLY ME URGENT PLEASE

Dear Friend,
My Name is Ahmed Sherrif, I am the Director of operation in Global trust Security / Finance Company Ltd- Ghana. I know this letter will come to you as a surprise but I want you to understand that my contacting you is divine because I want us to do this Business deal together. I got your contact from international brochure and decided to contact you for this simple business deal considering the fact that you will help in the actualization of this great business deal.
I am contacting you concerning a Deposit (fund) valued (15.5 Million US Dollars) deposited with our affiliate vault by our late esteemed customer a retired soldier and contractor residing in Iraq. He moved this money from Iraq to Ghana for investment. He went back to Iraq to bring his entire family to Ghana from Iraq but he died in a bomb blast with his entire family.
Since I got the information about the bomb blast and the death of our customer, I felt bad because from my adequate investigation I gathered that all his family members were involved in the bomb blast there by living nobody to claim the above mentioned fund. Based on this I contacted you to act as the relative to our late esteemed customer since you bear the same surname with our late customer. I will give you information’s of the Deposit which you will use to apply for the release of the fund to you as the cousin and next of kin to the deceased customer.
This business is risk free; nobody will suspect you since you bear the same surname with the depositor coupled with the fact that I will give you information of the fund which will prove to our affiliate vault office that you are related to the late depositor. Upon the successful release of this deposit to you we will share the money 55% for me-40% for you respectively, while 5% will be set aside to reimburse expenses that will be incurred during the release of the Deposit(fund) to you.
Finally, be mindful that nobody here knows that I contacted you for this business deal. To this effect you should please keep this letter confidential whether you are interested or not because if anybody here discovers that I gave you this information I will definitely lose my job and enter into a big problem.
If you are willing to do this business with me, Please kindly get back to me immediately.
Send me your reply through this email address (ahmedsherrf@gmail.com) for more detail.
Thanks for your co-operation,
Yours Faithfully,Alhaji Ahmed Sherrif,Tel; +233270091110.

Anti-fraud resources:

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