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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: "Dr bala ibrahim" <bala_ibrahim016@hotmail.fr>
Reply-To: bala_ibrahim@myway.com
Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 22:15:13 +0000
Subject: FROM THE DESK OF DR. BALA IBRAHIM.

FROM THE DESK OF DR. BALA IBRAHIM.
THE MANAGER OF AUDIT AND ACCOUNTING DEPT,
BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)
OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA-FASO.

I MAKE THIS APPEAL WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT ANY FACTS OR OPINION
EXPRESSED BY ME ARE GIVING IN CONFIDENCE AND SOLELY FOR YOUR PERSONAL
INFORMATION AND USE.

I am DR. BALA IBRAHIM. the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign
remittance department of my Bank. In my department I discovered an abandoned
sum of US$12.5M,(Twelve Million, Five Hundred Thousand US Dollars) with
account number 14-2558-5976 that belongs to one of our foreign customers who
died along with his wife and only daughter in a plane crash of Alaska
Airlines Flight number 261 which crashed on 31 January, 2000. You can read
more about the crash on visiting this site
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/

The owner of this
account is Mr. Morris Thompson an American and great industrialist and
a resident of Alaska. It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided
to make this business proposal to you and for our bank to release the money
to you. You have to follow the instruction which I will send to you as the
next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent
disbursement since nobody is coming for it and I don't want this money to
go into our bank treasury as unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after four years, the money will be transfered into the bank
treasury as unclaimed fund. The money has now stayed more than four years
and I am preparing documentaion to prove that this money has been transfered
to our bank treasury. It will be between me and you only that will know
that the money is not transfered into our treasure.

The request of foreigner as next of kin in this transaction is occasioned by
the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabé cannot stand as
next of kin to a foreigner.In appreciation of your assistance, I am offering
you 30% of the total sum. 5% for contingencies (cost of transfer/other
charges) likely to be incurred during the course of transaction, while the
remaining 65% is for me.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of
the application which you will complete and forward to our bank asking for
this money to be paid to you as the next of kin to Mr. Morris Thomson. I
will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch-free
and that you should not entertain any fear as all required arrangements have
been made for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon as you
receive this mail through the above email.

PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY YOU CONSIDER MY URGENT
REQUEST.

Yours Faithfully,
DR. BALA IBRAHIM.

_________________________________________________________________
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