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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: "issa benedo" <issa_benedo53@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 17:20:15 +0000
Subject: TREAT AS URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL

FROM THE DESK OF DR ISSA BENEDO
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING MANAGER,
BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A)
OUAGADOUGOU-BURKINA FASO.

Dear friend,

I am the manager of Auditing and Accounting department of BANK OF
AFRICA(B.O.A) here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$20.5m dollar(TWENTY
MILION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS) in an account that belongs to one
of our foreign customer (MR.ANDREAS SCHRANNER from Munich,Germany) who died
along with his entire family in Jully 2000 in a plane crash.For more
information about the crash you can visit this site:
( http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm)

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
some body applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as
indicated in our banking guidlings and laws but unfortunately we learnt that
all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the
plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I 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 don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as
unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after five 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 occassioned by
the fact that the customer
was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.

I agree that 30% of this money will be for you as a respect to the provision
of a foriegn account , 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred during
the business and 60% would be for me Thereafter, I will visit your country
for disbursement according to the percentage indicated Therefore, to enable
the immediate transfer of this fund to you arranged,you must apply first to
the bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased with a text of
application form that i will send to you when i hear from you,so i will like
you to send to me your private telephone and fax number for easy and
effective communication and location where in 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 this transaction is hitch-free and
that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements
have been made for the transfer.

You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter.

Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Yours Faithfully,
DR ISSA BENEDO
MANAGER AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENT
BANK OF AFRICA.

_________________________________________________________________
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