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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: "prince mbankwe" <barr_prince_m@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 14:45:40 +0100
Subject: PLS VERY URGENT




From:
The Desk of Dr PRINCE MBANKWE ,
Bill And Exchange Manager-('BIB )
BANQUE INTERNATIONAL DU BENIN
Republic of Benin. West Africa.
Alt/Email:
Phone: 00229 97 07 91 27
Call me Immediately you get this mail 0029
97 079 127
Dear Sir/Madam,
Compliments of the day. I deceided to contact you after I received a worthy
information about your reliability and honesty. Hence I confide in you.
I am Dr PRINCE MBANKWE ,from (BANQUE INTERNATIONAL DU BENIN),Republic of
Benin.
In my department I discovered an abandoned sum of $12.5M, Us dollars . In an
account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his
entire family on 25th December 2003 in a plane crash.VIEW THIS WEB SITE
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/25/world/main590221.shtml
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash/index.html
After due verification I noticed that no other person knows about this
account except his wife who was also invovled in the crash, and the account
has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to me as well that
untill his death he was the Director GOLD ARK [SARL] Since our bank,(BANQUE
INTERNATIONAL DU BENIN)Benin Rep.got information about his death, we have
been expecting his next of kin to come forward 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 and policies
but up to date nobody came up to this bank as his next of kin or relative.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I and other officials in my
department now decided to make this businness proposal to you and release
the money to you as the next of kin or elation to the deceased for safety
and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming forth and we don't want
this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed Bill.
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 as his relation. And the country law here does
not allow such money to stay more than Five years, for the money will be
recalled to the government treasury as unclaimed after this period.
Upon the receipt of your response, I will send to you the application
form,bank's contact and the next step to take. I will not fail to bring to
your notice that this business is hitch free and that you should not
entertain any fear as all modalities for fund transfer can be finalized
within fourteen banking days, after you apply to the bank as a relation to
the deceased.
It has been resolved that 30% will be for you while 10% has been maped out
to defray any expences that might be incured during the process of the
transaction. Then 60% will be for me which shall be release after the funds
must have been remitted into your bank account. When you receive this
letter, kindly send me an e-mail signifying your decision.Including your
private Tel/Fax numbers for quick communication.
I will be very happy if you can treat this business with the utmost secrecy
it demands because of my position in this bank.
For confidentiality reasons,kindly reply to my private Email: PRINCE
MBANKWE@yahoo.co.uk
Hoping for a very successful business relationship with you.
Best Regards,
Dr PRINCE MBANKWE
Phone: 0022997 079 127 (direct Line

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