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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: "Dr. William Abby" <willabby014@o2.pl> (may be fake)
Reply-To: willabby03@yahoo.it
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 01:32:40 +0200
Subject: Contacting you

Dear partner,

In order to transfer out $15,000,000.00 USD (Fifteen million united states Dollars) from our bank. I have the courage to look for a reliable and honest person who will be capable for this important business. Believing that you will never let me down either now or in future.

I am Dr. William Abby the auditor of African Bank of South Africa (A.B.S.A). There is an account opened in this bank in 1991 and since 1999 nobody has operated on this account again, after going through some old files in the records I discovered that if I do not remit this money out urgently it would be forfeited for nothing.

The owner of this account is Mr. Clayton Hamilton a foreigner and the manager of petrol chemical service (Pty) South Africa, a chemical engineer by profession and he died since 1999. No other person knows about this account or anything concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and my investigation proves to me that his company does not know anything about this account and the amount involved is (US$ 15,000,000.00).

I want to transfer this money into a safe foreign account abroad but I don't know any foreigner, I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money can not be approved to any local bank here but can only be approved to any foreign account because the former owner of the account is Mr. Clayton Hamilton was a foreigner. I know that this message will come to you as a surprise as we don't know ourselves before, but be sure that it is real and a genuine business. I only got your contact address from the chamber of commerce here in South Africa with the believe in god that you will never let me down in this business, you are the only person that I have contacted for this business for now, So please reply urgently.

I am contacting you because of the need to involve a foreigner with a foreign account as the real beneficiary. I need your co-operation to make this work fine, because the management of my bank is ready to approve this payment to any foreigner who has the correct information to this account, which I will give to you when assured of your capability to handle such amount in strict confidence and trust, according to my instructions and my advice for our mutual benefit because I don't want to make any mistake.

I will use my position and influence on other staffs to effect the legal approvals and onward transfer of this money to your account with appropriate clearance from foreign payment department. With assurance that this money will be intact pending my physical arrival in your country for the sharing and other investment. At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 25% out of the total amount, 70% will be for me, while 5% will be for expenses, both
parties might have incurred during the process of this transaction.

Truly Yours,
Dr. William Abby.


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