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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: "Dr TONY" <dr_tony_abu@handbag.com>
Reply-To: drtony_abu2001@post.cz
Date: Tue, 8 Mar 2005 15:22:45 -0800
Subject: Dear Friend,

FROM THE DESK OF DR.TONY ABU ,
BILLS AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A)
Lagos Nigeria.
REPLY TO:drtony_abu2001@post.cz

Dear Friend,

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance
department of BANK OF AFRICA here in Lagos Nigeria. In my
department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$30m dollars
(THIRTY Million US dollars) in an account that belongs to one of
our foreign customer (MR. ANDREAS SCHRANNER from Munich, Germany)
who died along with his entire family in Jully 2000 in a plane
crash.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting
his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we
cannot release it unless some body applies for it as next of kin
or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidlings
and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next
of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash
leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this
discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to
you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation
to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since
nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into
the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidline here stipulates that if such money
remained unclaimed after fours years, the money will be
transfered into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request
of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occassioned by
the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot
stand as next of kin to a foreigner.

I agree that 30% of this money will be for you as a respect to
the provision of a foriegn account , 10% will be set aside for
expenses incurred during the business and 60% would be for me
Thereafter, I will visit your country for disbursement according
to the percentage indicated Therefore, to enable the immediate
transfer of this fund to you arranged,you must apply first to the
bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased indicating your
bank name, your bank account number, your private telephone and
fax number for easy and effective communication and location
where in the money will be remitted.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email
the text of the application . I will not fail to bring to your
notice this transaction is hitch-free and that you should not
entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been
made for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon
as you receive this letter.

Trusting to hear from you immediately.
Yours Faithfully,

DR.TONY ABU




___________________________________________________________

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