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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery 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 friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "hundred thousand us dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
  • "utmost confidentiality" (they don't want anyone to point out to you that this is a scam)
  • "is 100% risk-free" (almost true for the criminal - arrests of online criminals are rare)
• 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.
  • thduke_bbb@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: thompson duke <thduke54@hotmail.fr>
Reply-To: <thduke_bbb@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 12 Jun 2007 16:14:33 +0000
Subject: From Dr Duke



Dear Friend,
Please forgive this unusual way of contacting you as it was borne out of my instincts and my basic search for a competent, dependable and honest fellow who will help me execute the below detailed transaction. Please treat with utmost confidentiality and secrecy.

I am the Head of Accounts and Audit Department of Bank Commerciale Du Burkina, Burkina Faso, Ouagadougou. I decided to contact you after a careful thought and prayer, considering that the good and the bad live side by side in our society today, coupled with the monumental hype and crap of the abuse of the internet by some unscrupulous persons, making it difficult to know the legitimate business minded people in our midst. It is against this backdrop, that i have decided to go the way of my instinct by contacting you, believing that you may be capable of handling this business transaction which i explained below;

In my department, i discovered an abandoned sum of $12.5m US dollars (Twelve million, five hundred thousand US dollars). In an account that belong to one of our foreign customers who died alongside his entire family in 2003 plane crash.

You can as well re-confirm the authenticity and genuineness of this piece of information,through the underneath website of this incident thus: (http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/20/kenya.crash/index.html)
Since we recieved 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, I discovered that his supposed next of kin(his son and wife) died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim .It is therefore, upon this premise that I decided to make this business proposal and release the money to you as the next of kin (I want to present you as his business associate )to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and i don't 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 four 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 Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.
I 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. There after, I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated. Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to your account as arranged,you must reply immediately for further details and advice. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is 100% risk-free and that you should not entertain any fear since i also work in this bank and that all required arrangements for the transfer of the fund shall be worked out once we commence. I only need an assurance that you are not going to betray this confidence i am reposing in you after the money must have been transferred to your account.

I expect that you contact me for more details immediately you receive this letter through this private yahoo address; (thduke_bbb@yahoo.com)
Hoping to hear from you immediately.

Yours faithfully,
Dr Thompson Duke Accounts & Audit Department, Bank Commerciale Du Burkina(BCB)
_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam