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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: "MR. STEPHEN MENSAH" <stephmensah76@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 02:20:20 -0700
Subject: GOOD MORNING MY FRIEND

This mail may be a surprise to you because you did not give me the
permission to do so and neither do you know me but before I tell you
about myself I want you to please forgive me for sending this mail
without your permission. I am writing this letter in confidence
believing that if it is the will of God for you to help me and my
family, God almighty will bless and reward you abundantly. I need an
honest and trust worthy person like you to entrust this huge transfer
project unto.

My name is Mr. Stephen Mensah, I`m a Branch Manager of a Financial
institute , I am writing to solicit your assistance in the transfer of
US$12,500,00. Dollars. This fund is the excess of what my branch in
which I am the manager made as profit last year (i.e. 2020 financial
year). I have already submitted an annual report for this December to
my head office in Accra-Ghana as I have watched with keen interest as
they will never know of this excess of the fund. I have since placed
this amount of US$12,500,000. Dollars on an Escrow Coded account
without a beneficiary (Anonymous) to avoid trace.

As an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this
money thus I am impelled to request for your assistance to receive
this money into your bank account on my behalf. I agree that 40% of
this money will be for you as a foreign partner, in respect to the
provision of a foreign account, and 60% would be for me. I do need to
stress that there are practically no risk involved in this. It's going
to be E-online transfer or bank-to-bank transfer. All I need from you
is to stand as the original depositor of this fund so that the fund
can be transferred to your account.

If you accept this offer, I will appreciate your timely response to
me. This is why and only reason why I contacted you, I am willing to
go into partnership investment with you owing to your wealth of
experience, So please if you are interested to assist on this venture
kindly contact me back for a brief discussion on how to proceed.

Best regards,
Mr Stephen Mensah

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