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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: "DR DAVID MBOWENI" <davidmboweni@zwallet.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: david_mboweni@excite.com
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 2006 11.52.58 +0100
Subject: SUCESSFULL TRANSACTION

ABSA PRIVATE BANK

I am David Mboweni, a Deputy Chief Executive of
Amalgamated Bank of South Africa (ABSA PRIVATE BANK)
,this BANK is also a correspondant of London
international branch,HSBC Bank,Plc.Level 26, 8 Canada
Square LONDON. I am writing following an opportunity
in my office that will be of immense benefit to both
of us.
In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of 9.2
Million British Pounds Sterling (Nine Million Two
Hundred Thousand British Pounds) in an account that
belongs to one of our foreign customers Late Mr.
Morris Thompson an American who unfortunately lost his
life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261
which crashed on January 31 2000, including his wife
and only daughter. You shall read more about the crash
on visiting this site indicated below for more
clarifications.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/
and
http://www.nativefederation.org/history/people/mThompson.html
Since we got information about his death, we have been
expecting his next of
kin or relatives 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 / regulations.
Unfortunately I learnt that his supposed next of kin
being his only daughter died along with him in the
plane crash leaving nobody with the knowledge of this
fund behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this
discovery that I and two other officials in this
department now decided to make business with you and
release the money to you as the next of kin or
beneficiary of the funds for safe keeping and
investment. Since nobody is coming for these funds and
we don't want this money to go back into Government
treasury as unclaimed bill. The banking law and
guidelines in South Africa stipulates that such money
after five years will be transferred into banking
treasury as unclaimed funds.
We agreed that 25% of this money will be for you if
you assist us in claiming this fund, while the
balance will be for my colleagues and I. Note that
this transaction is confidential and risk free. As
soon as you receive this mail you should contact me
through my e-mail address (david_mboweni@excite.com) for further
details.
Please note that all necessary arrangement for the
smooth release of these funds to you as has been
finalised and this fund is not linked to scam and its
alikes.
Upon the receipt of your response to assist I will be
able to put you in a clearer picture of what next to
do.Do bear in mind if this transaction does not
interest, please discard this e-mail and do not use
it against me as what I am doing will risk me of my
job I have laboured for years if exposed.
I crave your indulgence to make this a top most
secret.

Best Regards,
Dr David Mboweni


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