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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: "diego seahm" <diegoahm4@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: diegsea@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2005 21:20:59 +0000
Subject: Trusting to hear from you immediately!!!

FROM THE DESK OF DR. DIEGO SEAHM
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO.
TEL:00226-78-81-04-32



Dear Sir/Madam

I know that this letter may come to you as a surprise but due to the urgency
of this transaction.First I must solicit your confidence in this
transaction, this is by virtue of it's nature as being utterly confidential
and top secret. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make
any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be
well at the end of the day. There is no doubt that trust conceptually is a
conundrum which leadsitself to deferring interpretation, we have decided to
contact you due to the urgency of this transaction.

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department
of African Development bank (ADB). I came to know you in my private search
for a reliable and reputable person to handle this Confidential Transaction,
which involves thetransfer of a huge sum of money to a foreign account
requiring maximum confidence.

I am writing to you, following the impressive information received about you
from the chambers of commerce. I believed that you are capable and reliable
to champion this business opportunity. In my department we discovered an
abandoned sum of $30m US dollars (Thirty million US dollars). In an account
that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire
family On August 23, 2000 through Gulf Air Flight 72 with Airbus A320
crashed off, killing all 143 people on board and you can view the site for
more details:http://www-tech.mit.edu/V120/N32/gulfair.32w.html

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.

Yours faithfully,

Dr. DIEGO SEAHM
Bill and exchange manager,
African Development bank ADB

_________________________________________________________________
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