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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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Fraud email example:

From: "akim defoe" <akimdefoe8@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 03:40:49 +0200
Subject: URGENT BUSINESS...

FROM:Mr.Akim Defoe.
No 17 VC273
Randall Estate
Johannesburg-South Africa,
......................................................




Hello,

Warmest greetings to you.I want to solicit your attention to transfer to
overseas (26,000,000.00 USD) twenty six million United States Dollars from a
Bank in Africa. I also want to ask you to quietly look for a reliable and
honest person who will be capable and fit to provide either an existing bank
account or to set up a new Bank a/c immediately to receive this money, even
an empty a/c can serve to receive this money, as long as you will remain
honest to me till the end of this important business trusting in you and
believing that you will never let me down either now or in future.

I am Mr.Akim Defoe, the Auditor General of a bank in Africa, during the
course of our auditing I discovered a floating fund in an account opened
in the bank in 1990 and since 1993 nobody has operated on this account
again. After going through some old files in the records, I discovered that
the owner of the account died without a [heir] hence the money is floating
and if I do not remit this money out urgently it will be forfeited for
nothing. The owner of this account is Mr. Howard Sweeney, a foreigner and a
miner.He made millions of dollars before he died misteriously .Since 1993 no
other person knows about this account or any thing concerning it. My
investigation proved to me that the account has no other beneficiary and
that Mr. Howard Sweeney until his death was the manager Sweeney Coy.(pty).
SA.

We will start the first transfer with six million dollars [$6,000,000.00]
upon successful transaction without any disappoint from your side, we shall
re-apply for the payment of the remaining amount to your account. The
amount involved is (USD 26M) twenty six million United States Dollars, I
want to first transfer $6,000,000.00 [Six million United States Dollars]
from this money into a safe foreigners account abroad before the rest, but I
don't know any foreigner.

I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be
approved to a local person here without a valid foreign international
passport, but can only be approved to any foreigner with valid international
passport or drivers license and foreign a/c because the money is in US
dollars and the former owner of the a/c, Mr. Howard Sweeney was a foreigner
too, [and the money can only be approved into a foreign a/c]. I need your
full co-operation to make this work fine because the management is ready to
approve this payment to any foreigner who has correct information of this
account, which I will give to you, upon your positive response and once I am
convinced that you are capable and will meet up with instruction of a key
bank official who is deeply involved with me in this business.

I need your strong assurance that you will never, never let me down.So,
please reply urgently so that I will inform you the next step to take . Send
also your private telephone and fax number including the full details of the
account to be used for the deposit. With my influence and the position of
the bank official, we can transfer this money to any foreigner's reliable
account which you can provide with assurance that this money will be intact
pending my physical arrival in your country for sharing.

I will apply for annual leave to get visa immediately I hear from you that
you are ready to act and receive this fund in your account. I will use my
position and influence to obtain all legal approvals for onward transfer of
this money to your account with appropriate clearance from the relevant
ministries and foreign exchange departments. At the conclusion of this
business, you will be given 35% of the total amount, 60% will be for me,
while 5% will be for expenses both parties might have incurred during the
process of transferring.

I look forward to your reply soonest through my email address:
..............................................................................................


Sincerely,
Mr.Akim Defoe.

_________________________________________________________________
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