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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: "Lansana COSMOS" <lanfocos2002@yahoo.fr> (may be fake)
Reply-To: lanfocos2002@yahoo.fr
Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 01:07:31 +0200
Subject: This letter is strictly personal from Dakar -SENEGAL

Att:Sir
Good day,I know you'll receive this proposal beyond your imagination, surprise and some skeptism, based on the fact that we never had any prior discussion to this matter nor do we by any means seen or known each other before,nevertheless I would like you to treat the letter as a matter of urgency and accord it every necessary attention required on transaction of its magnitude.

I got your contact in cause of a serious search the for a reliable foreign partner.

I'm Lansana Cosmos the son of a late sierra leonian businessman, late Dr. Cosmos FOFANA the owner of RMS)mining company in Sierra leone .Who died some years ago when the revolutionary united front rebels
attacked Makeni town, Sierra leone. Following the cease fire agreement which was brokerred last year with the help of United Nation peace keeping
troops(UNASIL),I used the oppoturnity to leave the country with a very important document of(US$9.400.000) Nine million four hundred thousand U.S Dollars deposited by my late father in security company in Dakar Senegal on my name as the next of kin.
This money was realised from diamond export, now i and my mother are seeking asylum in Dakar Senegal under(UNHCR). My main reason of contacting you is that I received an information from the Security Company warning that I should make haste to dislodge the money or I loose it to high interest rate which has been pilling up since 1997 up till date. They advised I should present an individual,organisation / company as the beneficiary of the amount since the money cannot be released to me as a client considering my status here as a refugee.
I only want this done this way because your country is politically stable for any profitable for investment, The document are with me right now in Senegal, it will be faxed to you upon request.which will emphasis the authenticity of the transfer.
However I contacted with the notion that you'll have good knowledge on international commercial investment.
For your assistance and co-operation we will give you 10%of the total sum realised after the sucessfull transfer of this money.
Please kindly communicate your acceptance of this proposal so that
we can discuss the modalities of seeing this transaction through.
We count on you greatly for your assistance. Awaiting to to hear from you soon.
Your Sincerely
Lansana COSMOS.


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