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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: "Maher Labib" <mahersteit1965@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: maher_steit1965@123mail.cl
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 11:02:07 +0000
Subject: From: Maher Labib Abou Steit

From: Maher Labib Abou Steit
General Manager, UBE.
United Bank of Egypt.
106, Kasr El-Aini st,
Po box 85 Magles El-Shaab
Cairo center building
Cairo, Egypt
Telex: 20060/20061 ube un
Date:20th October, 2005

Dearest,

Compliments of the season

I am the manager United Bank of Egypt (UBE). in my bank I discovered an
abandoned sum of $33.3usd (thirty three million three hundred thousand
U.S.dollars only) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer,
by name, Mr. Bob Robert Chapman, African area director for Wycliffe bible
translators international, who died along with his wife, Ruth Chapman, in
January 2000 in a Kenyan plane crash in the coast of Abidjan, ivory coast.

Since we got 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 applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as
indicated in our banking guidelines.

Unfortunately I learnt that his supposed next of kin died along with him at
the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon
this discovery that I decided to make business with you and release the
money to you as the next of kin or relation of the deceased for safety and
subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and I don't want this
money to go into federal government account as unclaimed bill. The banking
law and the guidelines here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed
after five years the money will be transferred into banking treasury as
unclaimed fund.

The request of a foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by
the fact that the customer was a foreigner and an Egyptian cannot stand as
next of kin for a foreigner. It is agreed that a certain percentage of this
money will be for you as my foreign partner.
Thereafter I will visit your country for disbursement according to the
percentage agreed.

Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of the fund to you as arranged.
you must apply first to the bank as a relation or next of kin of the
deceased indicating your bank account number and location wherein the money
will be remitted.

Upon receipt of your reply I will send to you the text of the application.

As soon as you receive this letter, you should contact me through my
SECURITY e-mailaddress,maher_steit1965@123mail.cl

Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Yours faithfully

Maher Labib Abou Steit
General Manager, UBE.

Note: all transactions will be through email as calls are strictly monitored
down hear in the complex


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