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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: joseph_obi@zipmail.com.br
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 2005 10:39:27 +0100
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?URGENT=20REPLY=20NEEDED=2E?=

Dear Friend,

I apologies most sincerely the embarrassment this my letter might cause
as we have never met before. My name is JOSEPH OBI, I am the Personal Assistant
to the Manager, Bill and Exchange Department in Anchor trust Bank of Nigeria
Plc(ATB)Head Office, Lagos.

I am writing in respect of an expatriate customer of ours who died about
3 years ago in a car accident along Lagos-Ibadan express road leaving a
substantial amount of money in his account with our bank.All efforts to
trace his relations or next of kin have proved abortive and the banking
laws and guidelines stipulate that if such money remains unclaimed after
four years, it will be treated as "unclaimed" and reverted to the bank's
treasury. josephobi_anchor@yahoo.com

The money in the account is $12.8m dollars. In view of the above that two
other senior officers of the bank and I decided to contact you to stand
as her next of kin to enable us transfer the money to you (since we as Nigerians
cannot stand as his next of kin).Get back to me through EMAIL[josephobi_anchor@yahoo.com]


Therefore, you are expected to declare your interest and preparedness to
take possession of this fund for our mutual benefit.The ratio of sharing
and disbursement shall be discussed and agreed upon after we receive your
response. Please treat this matter with the urgency and confidentiality
it deserves. We want to finalise this within two weeks.

Regards,

JOSEPH OBI

josephobi_anchor@yahoo.com




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