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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: "omaru aminu" <omaru_aminu0036@hotmail.fr>
Reply-To: omaruaminu40@yaoo.com
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 10:30:17 +0100
Subject: TREAT VERY URGENT

FROM THE DESK OF MR OMARU AMINU
BILLS AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A)
OUAGADOUGOU-BURKINA FASO.

Dear Friend,

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department
of BANK OF AF(B.O.A) here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In my department we
discovered an abandoned sum of US$15m dollars (Fiftheen Million US dollars)
in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer (MR. ANDREAS
SCHRANNER from Munich, Germany) who died along with his entire family in
Jully 2000 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 some body applies for it as next of kin or
relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidlings and laws 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 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 wedon't want this money to go into the bank treasury as
unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after fours 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 occassioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a
Burkinabe can not stand as next of kin to a foreigner.I agree that 30% of
this money will be for you as a respect to the provision of a foriegn
account , 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business
and 60% would be for me Thereafter, I will visit your country
for disbursement according to the percentage indicated Therefore, to enable
the immediate transfer of this fund to you arranged,you must apply first to
the bank as relation 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 Faithfully,
MR OMARU AMINU
BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A)
TREAT AS URGENT AND CONFIDENCIAL
PLEASE REPLY ME AT MY PRIVATE MAIL FOR SECURITY
REASONS(omaruaminu40@yahoo.com)

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