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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: "Oliver Bona" <olivebontrtiodujlbef@tiscali.it>
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 02:37:00 +1000
Subject: A great opportunity!

Dear Sir,



I am Mr. Oliver Bona, manager of bills/exchange at the foreign remittance department of a bank here in South Africa. In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of US$14,700,000.00 (Fourteen Million, Seven Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only) in an account that belonged to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family, on November 1999, in a ghastly plane crash.



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 applied for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines. Unfortunately, nobody has come forward to claim this money.



It is based on this that some officials in my department and I have decided to establish a cordial business relationship with you, hence my contacting you. We want you to present yourself as the next of kin or relation of the deceased, so that the funds can be remitted into your account.



Moreover, we do not want the money to go into the government account as unclaimed bills. The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that any account abandoned or is dormant for a period of years, is deemed closed and all money contained therein forfeited to the government treasury account.



Now, it is being speculated that the above sum will be transferred into the government account as an unclaimed fund on or before the end of March 2005. The reason for requesting you to present yourself as next of kin, is occasioned by the fact that the deceased (customer) was a foreigner.



The mode of sharing after a successful transfer of the money into your account, shall be 75% to my colleagues and I, for the role you will be expected to play in this deal, we have agreed to give you 20% of the total sum and 5% for any expenses that may arise in course of this transaction.



Therefore, you are expected to reply this letter indicating your readiness and interest to participate in this business. After receiving your reply, you will be communicated as regards the necessary steps to take to conclude this transaction.



I expect your urgent response via my private email (oliverbona@mail2banker.com) to enable us conclude this transaction urgently without any hitch.



Please treat this business proposal as strictly confidential for security reasons.



Personal Regards,



Oliver Bona.

(oliverbona@mail2banker.com)

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