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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: Mahrous Haider <m-haider-702@msn.com>
Reply-To: mahroushaider@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 10 May 2012 19:54:54 +0200
Subject: PLEASE MY DEAR I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE



Please reply to (mahroushaider@yahoo.com)
Dear friend,


With all due respect, I am Mr Mahrous Haider., director of the audit section of African Development Bank, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in West Africa. I am contacting you based on the fact that your profile was good and commendable. This message might meet you in utmost surprise, please forgive my intrusion into your privacy, however, it was due to the urgency implied and the need for a foreign partner that made me contact you today for a business transaction.


When auditing abandoned and outstanding accounts of the bank, I discover the secret file of one of our late customers, who was involved in a plane crash while on a trip along with his entire family on 31 July 2007 and they all lost there lives. He lodged some money into this bank either for personal use or for business of which we could not disclose, the said amount was US$3.5M (Three Million, Five Hundred Thousand USA Dollars). Since then we have made several inquiries to locate any of our customer's extended relatives, but our several attempts was unsuccessful as he neither left a Will nor any next of kin to this fund.


After these several frantic searches proved unsuccessful, I personally decided to contact you and to seek your consent to assist me and apply to the bank as the next of kin to the fund, so that the proceeds of his account can be paid to you for our benefit. As a foreigner, you stand a better position to apply through documentation as the next of kin to the fund since the deceased is also a foreigner. I can not do this deal alone as a citizen of Burkina Faso.


I have the opportunity of transferring this left over as I am the director of the Audit section of the bank, all I require from you is your honest co-operation to enable us see this transaction through and if only you will give me a full assurance that you can handle this business, then forward to me immediately the bellow information.


If you agree to my business proposal and on receipt of your prompt and positive response, further details and modalities for the transfer will be forwarded to you.You can write me on my personal e-mail address (

Your name..................
Your age...................
Your occupation............
Your country...............
Your passport.............
Your telephone number......
Your sex...................
marital status.............
Your home address..........


with best regards,
Mr Mahrous Haider.

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