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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: "ena lex" <enalex022@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: enalex@hermail.com
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 18:59:14 -0900
Subject: BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP.

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP.
FROM THE DESK OF ENGR NEN ALEX,
BILLS AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
UNITED BANK OF AFIRCA PLC.
PLOT 16/30 ADEMOLA CRESCENT
VICTORIA ISLAND, LAGOS. NIG.

Dear Good Friend,

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department
of UNITED BANK OF AFIRCA PLC. In my department we discovered an abandoned
sum of US$18.5m dollars (Eighteen Million Five Hundred thousand US Dollars)
in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer (MR. ANDREAS
SCHRANNER from Munich, Germany) who died along with his entire family in
July 2000 in a plane crash.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

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
some body applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as
indicated in our banking guidelines and laws but unfortunately we learnt
that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the
plane 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 we
don't 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 fours years, the money will be transferred into the bank
treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of 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.

I agree that 30% of this money will be for you as a 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 Thereafter, I will visit your country for
disbursement according to the percentage indicated Therefore, to enable the
immediate transfer of this fund to you arranged, you must apply first to the
bank as relation 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 where in 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 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. You
can call me on 234-803-398-6475

Trusting to hear from you immediately,

Yours Faithfully,

ENGR NEN ALEX.
BILLS AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
TREAT AS URGENT AND CONFIDENCIAL,


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