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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: "Williams Musumba" <barrwilliams44@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 01 Sep 2005 14:05:13 +0000
Subject: Attention Kuh

BARRISTER WILLIAMS MUSUMBA (SAN)
LEGAL PRACTITIONER, SOLICITOR & ADVOCATE
LAGOS NIGERIA

Dear Kuh,

I am Barr. Williams Musumba (SAN), personal attorney to late Engineer Robert
Kuh, who used to work with Osusu Construction Company Nig. ltd. here in
Nigeria herein after, shall be referred to as my client.

My client with his entire family (The wife and Two Children) were involved
in the bomb explosion in Lagos, Nigeria, on January 27th, 2002 which, claim
many lives and property. Unfortunately, my client and the family lost their
lives in that disaster that needed not to have happened. Since then I have
made several enquiries to your embassy to locate any of my clients extended
relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several
unsuccessful attempts, I decided to track his last name over the Internet,
to locate any member of his family hence I contacted you.

My purpose of contacting you is to assist in repatriating the fund (Estate)
left behind by my client prior to his death before they get confiscated or
declared unserviceable by the company where this huge deposit were lodged
in, where the deceased had an account valued at about US$10.4 million. The
company had issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have the
account confiscated within the next 14 official working days. Since I have
been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over one year, now I seek
your consent as the next of kin of the deceased since you have the same last
name/surname so that the proceeds of this account valued at US$10.4 million
can be paid to you.I will provide all the necessary official and legal
documents that can be used to back up your claim.

All I require is your honest co-operation to enable me as the legal attorney
to the deceased in seeing that you receive your inheritance fund. I
guarantee that this will be executed legitimately to protect you from any
breach of the law.

You can find information about the January 27th, 2002 Bomb Explosion on the
websites below.

http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2002/02/02.html
http://www.afro.who.int/country_offices_press/2002/pr2002_nigeria.html

Please get back to me through my email address for further discussion.

Best regards,

Barr. Williams Musumba (SAN)


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