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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 kruger" <josephkruger@krugermail.com>
Reply-To: josephkruger27@myway.com
Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 09:59:40 +0000
Subject: URGENT,TRANSACTION

Mr. Joseph Kruger
45 springfeild van tonder street
Johannesburg, Guateng 2196
South Africa
josephkruger27@myway.com

Courtesy of Business opportunity, I take liberty anchored on strong desire
to solicit for your assistance on this mutual beneficial and risk free
transaction with you, which I hope you give urgent attention. To be precise,
I am Mr.Joseph Kruger the Manager of Bills/Exchange at the Foreign
Exchange/Remittance Department of NEDBANK South Africa. In my department, we
discovered an abandoned sum of US$10,000,000.00 (Ten Million United States
Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our customers who died along
with his entire family in 1988 Lockerbie Pan American Airline 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 its next of Kin or Relation to the deceased as
indicated in our banking procedure, but unfortunately to no avail, and
nobody has come forward to claim the money (because the mentioned next of
kin which is Son died as well).

Therefore, upon this discovery I and other two officials in my department
now decide to establish a cordial business relationship with you, hence my
contacting you. We want you to purportedly present your good self as the
next of Kin or relation of the deceased so that we can prepare
documentations and release the funds (US$10 Million) into your account for
safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and again
we do not want the funds to go into the Governments account as "Unclaimed
Bill".

The banking law and procedures herein stipulates that any account abandoned
or dormant for a period of some years is subjected to be closed and all
money contained therein will be forfeited to the Government Treasury
Account. Now it is being speculated that the above sum will be transferred
into Government Treasury Account as unclaimed funds on .The reason for you
to present your good self as the next of kin in occasioned by the fact that
the deceased customer was a foreigner.

Mode of sharing after the successful completion of the transfer is as
follows, for the role you will be expected to play in the whole exercise, we
have agreed to give you twenty five (25%) of the total sum, and 5% has been
set aside for expenses we are going to encounter by both parties in the
process of this transaction and the remaining 70% shall be for my colleagues
and I. In support of the aforementioned, you are urged to reply this letter
indicating your readiness and interest to participate in the business. After
you reply, you will be advised on the next step forward.

I quite believe that you will protect our interest by keeping this business
Top Secret and Confidential, as your interest will be equally protected in
order to achieve and maintain maximum confidentiality. Trust to hear from
you on the above email:josephkruger27@myway.com as I count on your earliest
response.
Yours truly,

Mr. Joseph Kruger



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