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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: "mrsmimi ali05" <mrsmimi_ali05@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 19:43:48 +0000
Subject: Urgent Assistance

FROM THE DESK OF MRS MIMI ALI,
BILLS AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A)
OUAGADOUGOU-BURKINA FASO.

Dear Friend,

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department
of BANK OF AFrica(B.O.A) here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In my department
we discovered an abandoned sum of US$25m dollars (Twenty five 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 learntthat all his
supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash
leavingnobody 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,
MRS MIMI
BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A)
TREAT AS URGENT AND CONFIDENCIAL

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