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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Daswani Mensah" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <daswani19mensah@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2015 08:39:17 -0000
Subject: Hello Dear happy New Year

Hello Dear happy New Year

I know my email will come to you as a surprise because we never met before i contacted you with trust and believe in my heart that we can work together.I got you email and i decide to contact you for a business deal, My Name is Mr. Daswani Mensah. I am the regional manager of Standard Chartered Bank of Ghana Koforidua branch I write you this proposal in good faith, I am married with three kids.

I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit you and I, as the regional manager of the Standard Chartered Bank of Ghana it is my duty to send in a financial report to my head office in the capital city Accra at the end of each business year. On the course of the last year 2013 business report, I discovered that my branch in which I am the manager made Fifteen Million united state dollars($15,000,000.00) which my head office are not aware of. I have placed this funds on what we call escrow call account with no beneficiary. As an officer of this bank I cannot be directly connected to this money, so my aim of contacting you is to assist me receive this money in your bank account and get 40% of the total funds as commission.

It will be a bank to bank transfer, and all I need from you is to stand claim as the original depositor of these funds who made the deposit with my branch so that my head office can order the transfer to your designated bank account. Email me if you think we can work together so that we can go over the details.

Thanks

Yours truly,
Mr. Daswani Mensah

Anti-fraud resources: