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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: Messa Uche <messauche@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2007 15:29:33 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: GOD BLESS YOU.


Dear Friend,

How are you today, I am Mr. Messa Uche, an accountant in the bill and exchange department of the foreign remmittance section of GOLD TRUST BANK Lome,Togo in West Africa.

I am contacting you into this transaction so that you will act as the next of kin before the bank to enable them to effect the transfer of the funds to your bank account upon the conclusion of this transaction. In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of 15.5 million US dollars (Fifteen million Five Hundred Thousand United State dollars), in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family in 21st of April 2002,in a plane crash.

Since we got this information about his death, we have been expecting his next of Kin to come over and claim his money because we can not release it unless somebody applies for it as next of Kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking and financial policies but unfortunately we learnt that his supposed next of kin or relation died along side with him in the accident leaving no body behind to claim the money.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I and my partner 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 don't want this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed bills.

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 for a foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and an indigene cannot stand as next of kin to the deceased family. We agreed that 30% of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 5% will be set aside for expenses incurred during this transaction and 65 % would be for me and my colleagues.

Thereafter, I and my colleagues will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated. To enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged above, you must apply first to the Bank as the relation or next of kin to the deceased indicating your private telephone and fax numbers for easy and effective communication and location where the money will be remitted. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or e-mail 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 on my E-MAIL as soon as you receive this letter. I decided to contact you as we have products of interest in your part of the world where we can invest our own percentage to avoid peoples awareness as we are civil servants.

With your acceptance and cooperation, we can conclude this operation within ten working days.

Please keep this very confidential.

May God be with you.

Yours faithfully.

Messa Uche.


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