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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: "Charles Obi" <charles_obi02@msn.com>
Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2005 04:47:19 +0000
Subject: Urgently Reply

Dear Friend,

I cannot imagine the surprise this will bring to you, but please be rest
assured is with good faith and intentions from a friend in dare need of your
assistance to help us transfer the inheritance sum of US$2,700,000 (Two
Million Seven Hundred U.S Dollars) into your account or company's account,
in which God will bless you for rendering a helping Hand to others.

My name is Mr. charles obi, and I work with First Atlantic bank in Ghana and
am writing in respect of Mr.Choi, Soohyun a customer who perished in a plane
crash [Korean Air Flight 801] with the whole passengers aboard on August 6,
1997. Since the demise of this our customer.

I personally has watched with Keen interest to see the next of kin but all
has proved abortive as no One has come to claim his funds of US$2,700,000,
which has been with my company for a very long time. On this note, I decided
to seek for whom his name shall be used as the next of kin as no one has
come up to be the next of kin. Below is the website of the plane crash,

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/06/guam.passenger.list/

For your efforts, I am prepared to offer you 30% of the total sum while 5%
will be set aside for expenses incurred during the course of this
Transaction, 5% for the less Privileged in the society and the Remaining 60%
is for me and my Partners.

Please note that this transaction is risk-free and the major thing I ask of
you is to assure me the safety of the money when transferred to your
account. Further Information and arrangement will commence as soon as trust,
Confidence and good relationship is established.

I shall be most grateful if you maintain the confidentiality required In
this transaction. Do not hesitate to contact me for further Directives to
enable us commence towards the conclusion of this transaction.

Please respond to this mail using my email address :

I wait for your prompt response.

Thanks and God bless,
charles obi.


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