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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: "umaru usman" <umaru_usman2@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 12 Mar 2006 18:36:20 +0200
Subject: INVESTMENT / PARTNERSHIP.

FROM THE DESK OF DR UMARU  USMAN
BANK OF AFRICA (ANNEX)
BILL AND EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT,
OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA-FASO.
WEST AFRICA.

Dear Friend,

I know that this letter may come to you as a suprise.I got your contact address from the Internet while I was searching for a busines partner.

My name is Dr Umaru Usman. the Bill and Exchange(assistant) Manager of the BANK OF AFRICA (ANNEX) ,Ouagadouguo Burkina Faso. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of USD$10.300.000 (TEN  MILLION THREE HUNDRED U.S.A DOLLARS). In an account that belongs to this our foreign customer who died along with his wife and and children in the plane crash. Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot  release it unless somebody applies for it as the next of kin or relation to the deceased, as indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him in the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I and my colleague in the department now decided to make this business proposals to you and release the money to you as next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it because we don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed Bill. The banking law and guidelines
here stipulates that if such money remains unclaimed after five years, the money will be transferred into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund.

The request of foreigner in this transaction is necessary because our late customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. We agree that 33% of this money will be for you as foreigner partner in respect to the provision of a foreign account.2% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business and 65% would be for me and my colleague, after which we shall visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated.
To enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as we arranged,you will furnished me with a good receving account detail where the money will be transfered into,your private tel and fax number for easy communication.

Upon receipt of the above mentioned, I will send to you by fax or e-mail a text of the application which you shall retype and fax to our foreign remittance Department,for easy execution of the transaction.

I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is 100% hitch-free on both side. As all required arrangement have been made for this transaction.
Please I would like you to keep this transaction confidential and as a top secret as you may wish to know that we are Bank officials.

Your prompt response will be highly appreciated.

Yours Sincerely,
DR UMARU  USMAN
BILL AND EXCHANGE (ASSIST.)MANAGER
BANK OF AFRICA (ANNEX) ) OUAGADOUGOU
BURKINA-FASO.


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