419 scam: "Maher Labib Abou Steit"<spam@sxinfo.gov.cn> From:Maher Labib Abou Steit

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "abidjan" (a location commonly mentioned in 419 scams)
This email message is a next of kin scam.

Fraud email example:

From: "Maher Labib Abou Steit" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mahersteit65@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2012 13:15:09 +0100
Subject: From:Maher Labib Abou Steit

Dearest,

Compliments of the season.I am the manager United Bank of Egypt (UBE).In my bank covered an abandoned sum of $33.3musd (thirty three million three hundred thousand U.S.dollars only) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer, by name, Mr. Bob Robert Chapman, African area director for Wycliffe bible translators international, who died along with his wife, Ruth Chapman, in January 2000 in a Kenyan plane crash in the coast of Abidjan, Ivory coast.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we can not release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines. It is therefore upon this discovery that I decided to make business with you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation of the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement.

It is agreed that a certain percentage of this money will be for you as my foreign partner. Upon receipt of your reply I will send to you the text of the application. Thereafter I will visit your country for disbursement according to
the percentage agreed.

Yours faithfully
Maher Labib Abou Steit, General Manager, UBE
General Manager, UBE
United Bank of Egypt.106, Kasr El-Aini st,
Cairo center building, Cairo, Egypt

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam