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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: "abdul zabudaga" <azabudaga7@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: abdulza001@yahoo.it
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2005 11:20:21 +0000
Subject: CALL ME URGENT!!!

Dear,

I am the head of Accounts and Audit Department of Bank of Africa,
Ouagadougou .In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of $30.5m US
dollars (Thirty million, five hundred thousand US dollars). In an account
that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire
family in 1998 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 his supposed next of kin(his son and wife) died
alongside 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 (We want to present you as his business
associate )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. I will give you more vital details when I
receive your call or response for security reasons. I expect that you call
me on my private line +226 76 527576 for more details immediately you
receive this letter.

Yours faithfully,

DR ABDUL ZABUDAGA
Accounts & Audit Department ,
Bank of Africa

Nb. Also give me your telephone and fax numbers for easy communication with
you.

_________________________________________________________________
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