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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: "koffi john" <koffi_john1@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: amhed5@walla.com
Date: Fri, 07 Jul 2006 17:50:27 +0000
Subject: From:The Desk Of Mr Koffi John.

From:The Desk Of Mr Koffi John.
Bill And Exchange Manager.
International Bank Of Africa. (I.B.O.A).
Cotonou Republic of Benin
West Africa.


Greetings Well Beloved,

I am Mr Koffi John. the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign
remittance Department of (INTERNATIONAL BANK OF AFRICA. (I.B.O.A) I am
writing to seek your intrest over a transaction. In my department we
discovered an abandoned sum of $7.2m(Seven Million Two Hundred Thousand
Dollar) .In an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died
along with his entire family in a plane crash on the 26th of Dec.2003..

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 business 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 unclaimed after Five
years, the money will be transferred 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 Benin Indigine 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 incurred during the business and 60 % would be for me and my
colleagues.There after I and my colleagues will visit your country for
disbursement according to the percentages indicated. Therefore to enable the
immediate transfer 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 or your telephone call on my private tel numner
00229 97 68 20 14, 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 faithfully,

Mr Koffi John..

_________________________________________________________________
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