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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: umutu7@webmail.co.za
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2005 17:08:58 +0200
Subject: ***MR ISIDINGO***

Mr. Kelly Isidingo
ABSA Bank Limited,
Johannesburg, South Africa.
E-mail address,kelly2000@webmail.co.za.

Dear Sir,
I am Mr. Kelly Isidingo
manager of bills/exchange at the
foreign remittance
department of ABSA Bank. In my department, we
discovered an
abandoned sum of US$14,700,000.00 (Fourteen Million, Seven Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only) in an account that
belonged to one of our
foreign customers who died along with his entire
family, on November
1996, in a ghastly plane crash,and he happened to be a Foreigner. Since we got the
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 it as next of
kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our
banking guidelines.
Unfortunately, nobody has come forward to claim this
money.

It is based on this that some officials in my
department and I have
decided to establish a cordial business relationship
with you, hence by
contacting you. We want you to present yourself as the
next of kin
through your relation with the deceased, so that the
funds can be remitted
into your account.

Moreover, we do not want the money to go into the
government account as
unclaimed bills. The banking law and guidelines here
stipulates that
any account abandoned or is dormant for a period of
years, is deemed
closed and all money contained therein forfeited to
the government treasury
account.

Now, it is being speculated that the above sum will be
transferred into
the government account as an unclaimed fund on or
before the end of this financial quarter of 2005,
when nobody come forward to lay claims. The reason for
requesting you to
present yourself as next of kin, is occasioned by, the
fact that the
deceased (customer) was a foreigner, and we have
access to his detailed
bio data which you will hold as a weapon to present
yourself as the next
of kin.

The mode of sharing after a successful transfer of the
money into your
account, shall be 75% to my colleagues and I, for the
role you will be
expected to play in this deal, we have agreed to give
you 20% of the
total sum and 5% for the expenses we are going to
encounter by the two
parties in the course of this transaction. Therefore,
you are expected
to reply this letter indicating your readiness and
interest to
participate in this business. After receiving your
reply, you will be
communicated to with the exact steps to take.

I expect your urgent response through my email address:kelly2000@webmail.co.za. with the following info.
(1) Your full name and address.
(2) Your telephone and fax number.
And i shall contact you for further discussion on this matter,to enable us conclude this transaction urgently without any delay or
hitch.

Please treat this business proposal as strictly
confidential for
security reasons considering my official position in
ABSA Bank.

Personal Regards,
Mr.kelly Isidingo


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