419 scam: "Emmanuel Nana Fousa"<staff@happythailand.com> Dear Good 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:
- ",500,000" (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)
- "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)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "Emmanuel Nana Fousa" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <emmananafosua@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2017 12:13:49 -0500
Subject: Dear Good Friend

Dear

I am pleased to send my greetings to you. I know this letter will definitely come to you as a surprise package. I am extending this proposal to you in my capacity as the chairman of the contract Review/Audit Committee scrutinizing all record covering executed
contract awarded by the previous government.

My colleagues and I have uncovered a floating amount of USD$4,500,000.00 (FOUR MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND U.S.DOLLARS), without a clear beneficiary owing to a deliberate act of over invoicing and inflating of contract value by some government officials.This money (USD$4.5M),has already been approved for payment by the ministry of Mines, Power and Steel and is secured under Contract No:MMPS/GCI/V1233/MMPS-X29/97, Job Completion Certificate No:(677000000242MMPS/CI,)of 17th oct.2014.
As top civil servants we are not authorized to operate foreign bank account and this is why we want to use your bank account to transfer this money outside our country, Ghana, West Africa. We have accepted you as our foreign partner and will now regularize the approvals to you as the trust beneficiary of the contract sum.
As soon as we receive your acceptance,we shall inform you of the necessary requirements from you to facilitate transfer.

Let us use this opportunity to exploit the benefit of this sum. We have resolved to give 20% of the total sum as compensation for your assistance, 70% is for me and my partners here in Ghana, 10% is set aside to cover every expenses made in the course of the transaction. Note that this should be confidential.

Let me stop so far until I hear from you.
Sincerely,
Emmanuel Nana Fosua

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam