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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "dr ibrahim bello" <dr_ibrahim2021@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 03:40:58 +0000
Subject: TREAT AS URGENT

FROM THE DESK OF DR.IBRAHIM BELLO
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB)
OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO.

Dear Friend,

How are you,first i will explain my self little to you before we continue. I
am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department of
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB)I am writing to seek your interest over a
transaction.

In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of $15m US dollars (FIFTEEN
MILLIONS US DOLLARS) . In an account that belongs to one of our foreign
customer who died along with his entire family in November 2000 in a plane
crash. 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 somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as
indicated in our banking guidelines 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 and other officials in my
department 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 guideline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after five years, the money will be transferred into the Bank
treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this
business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a
Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.

We agree that 30 % of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in
respect to the provision of a foreign account, 10 % will be set aside for
expenses incurred during the business and 60 % would be for me and my
colleagues. There after I and my colleagues will visit your country for
disbursement according to the percentages indicated. Therefore to enable the
immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to
the bank as relations or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank
name, your bank account number, 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 that 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.


Your’s faithfully,
DR.IBRAHIM BELLO
Bill and Exchange Manager,
Africa Development Bank (A.D.B)

_________________________________________________________________
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