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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: james peters <contactjp38@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: meziem@excite.com
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2005 16:50:19 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: RELATIVE BUSINESS PROPOSAL


Dear Sir,
I am the Manager Bill and Exchange at the Foreign Remittance Department (FRD) of Standard Trust Bank of Nigeria (STB). I got your contact through internet while I was searching for an honest business partner who will assist me in this transaction.
We, in FRD, discovered the sum of US$17M (Seventeen Million United States Dollars) in an abandoned account that belongs to one of our foreign customers, Robert Ebner, who died in a plane crash november 1999. Please visit www.sptimes.com/News/110299/Worldandnation/Passenger_list_for_Eg.shtml for your perusal. Since we got the information of his death, we have been expecting any of his relatives to come forth and claim the money because the bank cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as the next of kin or relative to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines but the we gathered from a reliable source that none of his relatives is aware of this money.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I and other officials in my department now decided to make this businness proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming forth for it and it would not benefit anyone if the money is allowed to go into the bank's treasury as unclaimed Fund.
The request of foreigner as a next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Nigerian cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.
Upon your response in principle, detail information on the practicability of this transaction will be relayed to you while the disburement of the money will 30% for you and 60% for us in the bank. Please note that this transaction is hitch-free as it involves no risk whatsoever. I awaite your earliest response.
My regards.
James Peters.



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