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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: "OFFICE DESK" <headoffice111@msn.com>
Reply-To: jok_malo@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Tue, 20 Sep 2005 09:06:32 +0000
Subject: I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE

Mr.Joseph Khumalo,
ABSA Bank Limited,
Johannesburg, South Africa.

Dear Sir,

I am Mr.Joseph Khumalo, manager of bills/exchange at the
foreign remittance department of ABSA Bank. In my department, we
discovered an abandoned sum of US$14,700,000.00(Fourteen Million, Seven
Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only) in an account that belonged to
one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family, on
November
1996, in a ghastly plane crash,and he happened to be a Foreigner. Since we
got the information about his death, we have been expecting his next-of-kin
to come over and claim his money
because we can not release it unless somebody applied for it as next of kin
or relation to the deceased as indicated in our
banking guidelines. Unfortunately, nobody has come forward to claim this
money.


It is based on this that some officials in my department and I have decided
to establish a cordial business relationship
with you, hence by contacting you. We want you to present yourself as the
next of kin through your relation with the deceased, so that the funds can
be remitted into your account.

Moreover, we do not want the money to go into the government account as
unclaimed bills. The banking law and guidelines here
stipulates that any account abandoned or is dormant for a period of years,
is deemed closed and all money contained therein forfeited to the government
treasury account.

Now, it is being speculated that the above sum will be
transferred into the government account as an unclaimed fund on or before
the end of this financial quarterof 2005, when nobody come forward to lay
claims. The reason for requesting you to
present yourself as next of kin, is occasioned by, the fact that the
deceased (customer) was a foreigner, and we have
access to his detailed bio data which you will hold as a weapon to present
yourself as the next of kin.

The mode of sharing after a successful transfer of the money into your
account, shall be 70% to my colleagues and I, for the
role you will be expected to play in this deal, we have agreed to give you
25% of the total sum and 5% for the expenses we are going to encounter by
the two parties in the course of this transaction. Therefore, you are
expected to reply this letter indicating your readiness and interest to
participate in this business. After receiving your reply, you will be
communicated to with the exact steps to take.

I expect your urgent response through my email address :jok_malo.cu.uk.And I
shall contact you for further discussion on this matter,to enable us
conclude this transaction urgently without any delay or hitch.

Please treat this business proposal as strictly
confidential for security reasons considering my official position in ABSA
Bank.

Personal Regards,

Mr.Joseph Khumalo.


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