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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: "adams bello" <adams_bello3@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: ibrahim_terlumun1@v3mail.com
Date: Wed, 04 Jan 2006 19:50:11 +0000
Subject: TREAT AS URGENT

From The Desk of MR.adams bello
Bill and Exchange Officer
Foreigner Remittance Dept
Bank Of Africa
Burkina Faso

Dear Friend,

I am the officer of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department
of Bank Of Africa.

In my department i discovered an abandoned sum ofUS$10.5 US dollars (ten
million five hundred thousand US dollars) in an account that belongs to one
of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in July 2000
plane crash.
website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next
ofkin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it
unlesssome body applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as
indicated in our banking guidlings and laws but unfortunately we learnt that
all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at theplane
crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I 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 andsubsequent 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 guidline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after fours years, the money will be transfered into the bank
treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this
business is occassioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and
aBurkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.
I agree that 30% of this money will be for you as a respect to the provision
of a foriegn account , 10%will be set aside for expenses incurred during the
business .

Thereafter, I will visit your country for disbursement according to the
percentage indicated.
Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of thisfund to you as arranged,
you must apply first to the bank as relation or nextof kin of the deceased
indicating your bank name, your bank account number,your private telephone
and fax number for easy and effective communicationand location where in the
money will be remitted.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text
ofthe application . I will not fail to bring to your notice that
thistransaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any atom of
fearas all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.You should
contact me immediately as soon as youreceive this letter.
Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Yours faithfully
MR adams bello
Bill and Exchange officer

_________________________________________________________________
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