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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:

Fraud email example:

From: ALFRED KAMMER <imf.alfredk@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2022 11:09:05 +0100
Subject: Re: Urgent Inquiry Message From I.M.F.

Greetings And I Hope This Message Will Get To You On time!

I am Mr. Alfred Kammer of the Debt Recovery committee (DRC),
International Monetary Fund (IMF). My committee has the mandate to recover
unpaid debts associated with contracts, lottery fund, inheritance fund,
loans and grants etc ranging from $ 1M- $50M owed to various beneficiaries
across the globe (Asia, Europe,USA, Africa, and Australia) and submit the
list of the unpaid beneficiaries to the appointed official paying Banks for
immediate payment of the fund.

In the course of our investigation, your email address/particulars were
listed among the first fifteen yet to be paid hence this communication.
However, we received a petition yesterday from one Kurt Wilson that you are
dead. According to him, you died in a plane crash therefore that the fund
should be paid to him as the heir apparent. He has submitted his Bank
account for the transfer of the fund to him.

To avoid undue delay or paying the fund to the wrong beneficiary, hence I
have decided to contact you for confirmation. If we don't hear from you
after 72 hours of this notice, it will be assumed that the petition of Kurt
Wilson is true and the fund will be paid to him without further delay.

Therefore, if you are still alive and did not authorise Kurt Wilson, kindly
get back to us immediately and reconfirm your particulars.

Yours Sincerely,
Mr. Alfred Kammer.
Director, Independent Evaluation Office,
International Monetary Funds (IMF).

Anti-fraud resources: