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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: "vinmicado" <vinmicado@rya-online.net>
Reply-To: vinmicado@email.ro
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 2006 17:01:47 GMT
Subject: Re URGENT!! (Happy New year)

AFRICAN INT'L BANK PLC
PLOT 5, STUBBS ROAD,
OUAGADOUGOU,
BURKINA-FASO.

FROM THE DESK OF: VINCENT MICADO
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING DEPT
Alternative email add: vinmicado@email.ro

Compliments of the day,

Before proceeding, I wish to introduce myself to you, I am
Vincent Micado a staff of African Int'l Bank Plc,
Ouagadougou working in the accounts department. I am pleased
to get across to you for a very urgent and profitable
business proposal which I believe will profit the both of us
after completion. I contacted you after a careful thought
that you might be capable of handling this business
transaction, which I explained below.

All attempts to trace his next of kin were fruitless. I
therefore made further investigations and discovered that
Late Mr. Morris Thompson did not declare any next of kin or
relation in all his official documents, including his bank
deposit paperwork in my bank before he 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. This sum of eight million, five hundred
thousand United States dollars ($8.5 million) has been
floating as unclaimed since 2000 in my bank as all efforts
to get his relatives have hit the stones.

According to the law of Burkina-faso, the money will revert
to the ownership of the Burkina-faso government if nobody
applies to claim the fund. To avoid this money being sent
to the government treasury as unclaimed funds, I have
decided to seek your assistance to have you stand as his
next of kin so that the said fund ($8.5m) would be released
in your name as the next of kin and paid into your account
before I come over to meet you for sharing.

All documents and proof that will have you claim this fund
without stress will be forwarded to you upon your response
to this mail more so, I want to inform you that I have
unanimously agreed to offer you 30% of the sum for the
assistance and role you are going to play in this
transaction, 20% will be given to charity organizations
while the remaining will be my share. As a Christian, i
cannot stand and see this money being sent to the British
treasury while the poor suffer.

Please send your confidential telephone and fax number in
your reply to this business transaction to my email for
urgency: vinmicado@email.ro

God bless you!!

Yours Sincerely,

Vincent Micado.

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