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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: "ahmed utaba" <ahmed_utaba@msn.com>
Reply-To: ahmed_utaba@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 21 Sep 2005 04:10:09 +0000
Subject: BEST REGARD

13/9/2005
AHMED UTABA & ASSOCIATES
(LEGAL PRACTITIONERS)
# 64/16 ISAAC JOHN STREET
IKEJA, LAGOS
NIGERIA.
EMAIL: ahmed_utaba@yahoo.com
With compliments and respect please I beg your pardon for this unsolicited
nature, it was out of desperation and Curiosity that made me to contact
you, to introduce myself , I am BarristerAHMED UTABA, a solicitor at law. I
am the personal attorney to Sir Richard, a national of your country,who used
to work with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) here in Nigeria, is
referred to as my trusted client. On Sunday, 27th of January 2002, my
client, his wife {Lady Anna and their three childrean{Elizbeth,Dexter and
James} were involved in terrible bomb blast that took live of innocent
souls and unfortunately over 1000, people lost their lives and my client
and his family were part of this people that lost their lives.In view of
this please view the web page below
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2698081.stm Since then I have made
several enquiries to your embassy to locate any of my client's extended
relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful.After these several
unsuccessful attempts, I decided to track his last name over the Internet,
to locate any member of his family or any close name to
his,hence I contacted you. I am contacting you to assist in repatriating the
money and
property left behind by my client before they get liquidated or declared
Unserviceable by the bank where this huge deposits were lodged, particularly
the OCEANIC BANK where the deceased had his account valued precisely to be
USD$ 18. million dollar} The bank has issued me a notice to provide the
next of kin or have the account liquidated within the next twenty one
official working days. Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you as
a national of same country to stand in as the next of kin ,so that the
fruits of this old man's labour will not get into the hands of some group of
corrupt government officials who will get rid of the money and share it for
their own selfish
interest and greed.
Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 2 years
now, I seek your prompt consent to present you as the next of kin of the
deceased since you have the same last name so that the proceeds of this
account valued at USD$ 18, Million can be paid to you and then you and I can
share the money according to any agreed ratio.
All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us see this deal
through. I guarantee that this will be executed under legitimate arrangement
that will protect you from any breach of the law.
Looking forward to your swift reply.
Truly yours,
Barrister AHMED UTABA.
Please send to me your direct contact telephone numbers as I will like
to
talk with you on one to one.


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