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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: "mike aku" <mikeakumike@msn.com>
Reply-To: mikeakumike@yahoo.com
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 02:36:39 +0000
Subject: if you are not interested to assist me in this regard,do not fail to let me know

Dear Friend

Good day and compliment of the seasons to you. My Name is MIKE AKU, the son
of Late Ishaya Mark Aku the former Minister of sport in Nigeria I am
27-Year-Old-Nigerian in possession of my Late dad's properties.
I lost him in a plane crash During his trip from a meeting he attended with
some other ministers in Abuja. Since his death, I have been in charge of his
business and properties and I have got no problem with that since I have
been doing that before his death.
I received a letter from one of his bank in Nigeria recently notifying me of
a paymment worth 12.5 Million dollars made into his account by a computer
firm Named "IF Computer GmbH Cecinastr" 37D-82205 Gilching,Europe.
The money as I read is the Balance payment from a computer business he
engaged in with the Federal Government of Nigeria during the NIGHA
2002(NIGERIA/GHANA NATION'S CUP CO-HOST). As a result of this notification I
have written a letter through my Lawyer to the bank to deposit the Money
into a vault House, in which I have successfully carried out in the last two
month.
Since I am his next of kin ,it was so easy for me in doing this without the
knowledge of my family members .
I want to try as much as possible to transfer his money out of this Vault
House before my family members got to know about this.I know that this issue
is a very sensitive one and it should not be discuss on the net. Why dont
you send me your phone #and your Fax No. so that, I will get in touch with
you for further discussion regarding to the transaction.
This deal is a risk free one and your gain shall be 20% of this money
provided you co-operate with me.Remember not to tell anybody about this
because my daddy happens to be very popular person even after his death.
I will be very grateful if you can help me because i am sending this
message direct to you only hoping that you will read the message and get
back to me immediately.But if you are not interested to assist me in this
regard,do not fail to let me know also.
My regards to your family.

MIKE AKU.


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