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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: "ibrahim_awani @yahoo.com" <ibrahim_awani@gazeta.pl>
Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 13:13:17 +0000
Subject: PLEASE READ CAREFULY AND GET BACK SOONEST


*DR IBRAHIM AWANI*
*THE MANAGER FOREIGN REMITTANCE
**DEPARTMENT,**BANK OF AFRICA(BOA)*
*BURKINA FASO.

(STRICTLYCONFIDENTIAL)

Dear Friend,

I am the AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING MANAGER BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A) here
in Ouagadougou,
BurkinaFaso. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of $17.5m
USdollars(SEVENTEEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS)in an account
that belongs to one of our foreign customer with his entire family On August
23, 2000 through Gulf Air Flight 72 with Airbus A320 crashed off, killing
all 143 people on board and you can view the site for more details:**http://
wwwtech.mit.edu/V120/N32/gulfair.32w.html*<http://wwwtech.mit.edu/V120/N32/gulfair.32w.html>

*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 guidlings 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 guidline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after nine years, the money will be transfered into the bank
treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this
business is occassioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a
Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.

I agree that 40% of this money will be for you as a respect to the provision
of a foriegn account , 10%will be set aside for expenses incurred during the
business and 50%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
he application you will fill andsend it to the bank.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
thetransfer...

You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter
Trusting to hear from you immediately.(00226)76829729
1.NAME IN FULL:........................
2.ADDRESS:...............................
3.NATIONALITY:.........................
4.AGE:.......................................
5.Sex........................................
6.OCCUPATION:........................
7. MARITAL STATUS:.................
8.PHONE...................................
9.FAX:.......................................
Yours Faithfully,
DR IBRAHIM AWANI
*

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