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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: "James Bamgura" <james_bamgura@msn.com>
Reply-To: james.bamgura@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 09:53:57 +0000
Subject: Please read and get back me now

Attn Dear Friend ,

Do accept my sincere apologies if my mail does not meet your personal
ethics. I will introduce myself
first to you.My name is Dr.James Bamgura, a staff in the accounts management
section of a BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A) here in bénin republic. One of our
accounts with holding balance of USD7.2,000,000(Seven Million Two Hundred
United States Dollars) has been dormant and it has not been operated for
the past years and an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer
Mr.J.C MARTIN who died along with his entire family on 25th December 2003
in a plane crash.
VIEW THIS WEB SITE
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash/index.html.

and since then nobody has done anything as regards the claiming of this
money because he has
no family members who are aware of the existence of neither the account nor
the funds. Also Informationfrom the National Immigration states that he was
also
single on entry into africa.

I have secretly discussed this matter with some of the bank officials and we
have agreed to find a reliable foreign partner to make this deal. We thus
propose to do business with you, standing in as the next of kin so that this
fund will released to you after due processes have been followed.

This transaction is totally free of risk and troubles as the fund is
legitimate and does not originate from drug, money laundry, terrorism or any
other illegal act. On your interest, let me hear from you.

Regards,
Dr James Bamgura

DISCLAIMER:
This message contains confidential information and is
intended only for specified addressee. If you are not
the named addressee you should not disseminate,
distribute or copy this e-mail. The sender therefore
does not accept liability for any errors or omissions
in the contents of this message, which arise as a
result of e-mail transmission.


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