419 scam: "Lucy"<mariam.lucy@yahoo.com.hk> Good News

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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.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "00,000.00" (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)
- "ecowas " (the name of a person or institution often appearing in 419 scams)
This email message is a next of kin scam.
This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
- +447024084602 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)
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.
- lucy_mariam@yahoo.com.hk (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: "Lucy" (may be fake)
Date: Wed, 6 Feb 2013 15:27:36 -0800
Subject: Good News

Fax: +44-702-408-4602

Attn: Beneficiary,

Re: Immediate Remittance Of Your US$2M Interest Payment Bit By Bit Without any Hitch

Sequel to our board of directors meeting recently which your file was reviewed that sometime ago in our bank,
your over due funds was brought to our bank from Ecowas and after some period, they call the fund bank to their treasury in World Bank.
For the period of time this money was in our bank, it generated an interest of US$2Million.
Which we considered your long suffering as we have the knowledge that you have not receive a single cent from your inheritance fund from Africa,
rather than paying for this or that due to corrupt government and bad bank officials in Africa and we have decided to pay you this US$2M to console your suffering in their hands.

As you know very well how monitored it is for fund transaction above US$500,000.00 around the globe and the circumstance surrounds it.
We have concluded plans to be crediting your account bit by bit of US$400,000.00 on each transfer.
All you need to do now is to reconfirm your bank account information’s where the fund will be transferred with your mobile telephone number.
here is my email address:lucy_mariam@yahoo.com.hk

Note; we have only 5 working days to complete the transaction.

Regards,

Maryam Lucy,

The foreign operations officer
World Bank office,United Kingdom

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam