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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: "yaba sani" <mr_sani97@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 17:52:30 +0000
Subject: Urgent Message

FROM THE DESK OF MR SANI.
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)
OUAGADOUGOU,BURKINA FASO.WEST AFRICA

Dear Friend,

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department
of Bank Of Africa (BOA). I crave your indulgence as i contact you in such a
surprising manner. But I respectfully insist you read this letter care fully
as I am optimistic it will open doors for unimaginable financial rewards for
both of us.

In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of twenty one million three
hundred US dollars (US$21.3m) only , in an account that belongs to one of
our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in November 2000
in a plan crash. Since we got information about his death, we have been
expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot
release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the
deceased asindicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately we learnt
that all his supposed next of kin or relation died along with him at the
plan crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business
proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation
to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is
coming for it and i dont want this money to go into the bank treasury as
unclaimed Bill.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after five years, the money will be transferred into the Bank
treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of a foreigner as next of kin in
this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner
and a Burkina be cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. We agree that
30% of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect to the
provision of a foreign account , 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred
during the business and 60% would be for, me and my colleagues.

There after Iand my colleagues will visit your country for disbursement
according to the percentages indicated. Therefore to enable the immediate
transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank
as relations or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank name,your
bank account number, your
private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and
location wherein the money will be remitted. Upon receipt of your reply,I
will send to you by fax or email the text of the application.I will not fail
to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch free and that you
should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been
made for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon as you
receive this letter.
Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Yours faithfully,

MR SANI,
Bill and exchange manager,
BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)

_________________________________________________________________
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