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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: "VINCENT DIASEH" <vindia15@yahoo.co.uk> (may be fake)
Reply-To: vincentdiaseh1@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Sat, 1 Jan 2005 14:22:09 +0100
Subject: TREAT AS CONFIDENTIAL

ATTN: ,

I MAKE THIS APPEAL WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT ANY
FACTS OR OPINION EXPRESSED BY ME ARE GIVING IN
CONFIDENCE AND SOLELY FOR YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
AND USE.

I am MR. Vincent Diaseh , the manager of bill and exchange
at the foreign remittance department of my Bank. In
my department I discovered an abandoned sum of
US$8.5M,(Eight Million, Five Hundred Thousand US
Dollars) with account number 14-2558-5976 that belongs
to one of our foreign customers who died along with
his wife and only daughter in a plane
crash of Alaska Airlines Flight number 261 which
crashed on 31 January, 2000. You shall read more about
the crash on visiting this site
<http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/>
The owner of this account is Mr. Morris Thompson an
American and great industrialist and a resident of
Alaska.
On further investigation, I found out that he died
without making a WILL, and all efforts to trace his
next of kin yielded no progress.I, therefore, made
further investigations and
discovered that Mr. Morris Thompson did not declare any
next of kin or relations in all his official
documents, including his deposit documents in our
bank
It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and for our bank to release the money to you. You have to follow the instruction which I will send to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and I don't want this money to go into our bank treasury as unclaimed bill. The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after Three years, the money will be transfered into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The money has now stayed more than three years and I am preparing documentaion to prove that this money has been transfered to our bank treasury. It will be between me and you only that will know that the money is not transfered into our treasure. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this transaction is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Senegalese cannot stand as next of ki!
n to a foreigner.
I will like you to provide
me with your full names and address so that I can
contact an Attorney here to prepare the necessary
documents and affidavits which will put you in place
as the next of kin. We shall employ the service of two
attorney's for the drafting and notarization of the
WILL and obtain the necessary legal documents in your
favour for the transfer.
In appreciation of your assistance, I am offering you 30% of the total sum. 5% for contingencies (cost of transfer/other charges) likely to be incurred during the course of transaction, while the remaining 65% is for me. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of the application which you will complete and forward to our bank asking for this money to be paid to you as the next of kin to Mr. Morris Thomson. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this mail throughthe above email PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY YOU SHOULD CONSIDER MY URGENT REQUEST. Yours Faithfully, MR. VINCENT DIASEH.


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