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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: "kofi abubarka" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <abubarkakofi@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2018 17:09:35 +0100
Subject: payment

Ghana Commercial Bank,
Thorpe Rd, High Street,
P.O box GP 132,
Accra, Ghana.
Swift Code GHCBGHACXXX
Attention,
GCB has been delegated by International Monetary Fund in conjunction with the Dept. of United Nation Foreign Affairs and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to remit $1,900,000.00 USD ONLY to you. However it has been tag overdue, it was during our quarterly auditing process that your email address was discovered among the list of victims who has been ignorantly having illegal financial dealings with some online African perpetrators and for this reason you are contacted for compensation.
You are to re-confirm the below information for final verification process so we can proceed to transfer your already approved $1,900,000.00 into your later provisional bank account. 
 
1. Full Names:
2. Telephone Number:
3. Alternative E-mail Address:
4. A copy of any identification document
 
Your urgent response will be highly appreciated to enable us serve you better
 
Yours Sincerely,
Kofi Abubarka,
Head Corporate Affairs                                          
Ghana Commercial Bank

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