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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "mohamed garuba30" <mohamed_garuba30@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2005 11:19:17 +0000
Subject: REPLY ME

TOP SECRET AND CONFIDENTIAL
FROM THE DESK OF MOHA
BILL AND EXCHANGE DEPARTMENT
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK -ADB
OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO.
Dear friend
I am the manager of bill and exchange department of African Development
bank(ADB). I am writing the impressive information about you through one
of my friends who runs a consultancy firm
in your country. He assured me of your capability and reliability to
champion this businees opportunity.
In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$12,5M (TWELVE
MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS). In an account that
belongs to one of our
foreign customer who died along with his entire family in november 2003 in a
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 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 at the plane crash
leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery
that I and other officials in my department now decided to make
this businness proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of
kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement
since nobody is coming for it and we dont want this money to go into the
Bank
treasury as unclaimed Bill.
The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclamed after four 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 occasioned by
the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as
next of kin to a foreigner. We agree that 30 % of this money will be for you
as foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 10 %
will be set aside for expenses incured during the business and 60 % would be
for ;me and my colleagues.
There after I and my colleagues will visit your country for disbursement
accoding to the percentages indicated.
Therefore to enable the immediate trnansfer of this fund to you as
arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relations or next of kin of
the deceased indicating your bank name, your bank account number, your
private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and
location where in the money will be remitted .
Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of
the application. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this
transaction is hitch free and that you should not entertain any atom of
fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer .
You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter.
Trusting to hear from you immediately.
yours faithful
GARUBA

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