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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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.

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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
  • "a security company " (this will cost you money - that's what the scam is about)
• This email message is a next of kin scam.
• This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
  • dr_zanabaku@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Sonu Nancy <sonummy@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: dr_zanabaku@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2007 10:12:49 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Mutual Benefit: Pls get back to me soon.


Dear Sir/Madam
This message to you is strictly confidential, with due respect. Sorry at this perceived confusion or stress you may have receiving this letter from me, since we have not known ourselves or met Previously. Despite that, I am constrained to write you this letter because of the urgency it requires. As a matter of fact, I got your contact from a reliable source believing you will be of a great assistance to my kids and me. My decision to consult you for a partnership business of mutual benefit is indeed personal. I am not in doubt that you can be trusted in financial related matters of this magnitude.
I am Dr (Mrs) zanab aku, the widow of the former Nigeria Youth and Sports Minister late Mark Ishaya Aku who died in a plane crash on the 4th of april, 2002 My kids and I are trapped in an obnoxious custom And traditional rites of my late husband's family. We have suffered maltreatment and untold hardship in the hands of my late husbands family, simply because I am not from the same tribe with my late husband. His brothers have taken all that I suffered with my husband to acquire including treasure, houses and his bank
accounts closed by them. I wanted to escape to the United States of America [USA} with my children on exile, but again they conspired and stole my international passport and other traveling document to further frustrate me Thank God, a week ago, I received an information via our family lawyer that my late husband deposited the sum of U.S $7.5Million [seven Million five hundren thousand United States Dollars] in cash with a security company in Amsterdam, hence my late husband's brothers would not allow me to have any telephone contact with anybody.
It has therefore, become very necessary and urgent to contact someone, a foreigner like you who can travel to the offshore payment center on our behalf to help me receive/secure these funds, while we find a way of getting out of Nigeria to meet with you in your country.
I have had several discussions with our family lawyer who has express willingness to help me with the necessary documents for the claim of the funds from the Security company in Amsterdam should I get an honest, competent and capable foreigner who will not cheat my kids and me or even sit on the funds after claiming it, to stand on our behalf to claim the funds. This is why I have contacted you to help save my children and I from this obnoxious tax leveled on us by my late husband's brothers by claiming these funds and investing it on our behalf. But you would need to give me sufficient assurance that if you help me, you would not divert the funds.
My children and I have resolved to give you 25% of the total sum. This is all what my children and I have got to live on. Please, I have reposed my confidence and trust in you and hope you will not disappoint me, please see the news on this websites to make you understand and believe me http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1968300.stm you will contact my lawyer hence he will be the one to deal with you on the transaction to avoid suspicion from my late husband's brothers. I look forward to your urgent response.
I await your response through my personal Email Address: dr_zanabaku@yahoo.com

Best Regards
Dr (Mrs) zanab aku

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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam