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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: "Besnier Joel" <besnierjoel@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 10:16:10 +0000
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL AFFAIR



FROM THE DESK OF BESNIER JOEL
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK(A.D.B)
OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO.


I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department
of African development bank (A.D.B) . I am writing to seek your coperation
over a business deal.

In my departmentn we discovered an abandoned sum of $20.5million USD (Twenty
million ,five hundrend thousand United State dollars) . In an account that
belongs to one of our foreign customar who died along with his entire family
in a 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 cannot release it
unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased
as indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately we learnt that
all his supposed next of kin or relation died longside with him at the
plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I and other officials in my
department 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 dont want
this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed Bill.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclamed after four 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 occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and an
citizen cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.

We agree that you suggest the sharing of this money , in respect to the
provision of a expenses , 5 % will be set aside for expenses incured
during the business . There after I and my colleagues will visit your
country for disbursement accoding to the percentages you indicate.

Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged,
you must apply first to the bank as relations or next of kin to the
deceased man indicating your claims and wherein 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 that this
transaction is stricly confidential and should be handled with utmost
secrecy untill completed .i will use all our position in this Bank to effect
a hitch free transfer.

You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter.
Trusting to hear from you immediately.
Yours faithfully,
Besnier Joel
Bill and exchange manager

_________________________________________________________________
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