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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
• "Is that email a scam?" - Check it online here!
  
• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
  (+225 +229 +234 +27 +31 +32 +34 +44 other)
• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
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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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "might come to you as a surprise" (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)
  • "contact me immediately" (they are rushing you so you don't have time to think properly)
  • "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
• This email message is a next of kin scam.

Fraud email example:

From: Dr Idris Adamu <idris.adamu40@hotmail.fr>
Reply-To: <idris_adamu2@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2007 13:49:43 +0000
Subject: TRUST AND CONFIDENCE.



Good day !

Attn: Please

I know this mail might come to you as a surprise package, but kindly allow me the opportunity to introduce myself. I am Dr. Idris Adamu. The manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department of my Bank. I got your particulars through my private search for a trustworthy foreign Partner. However, I am contacting you in order to ask for your assistance on this confidential business proposal with full financial benefit for both me and you. Before I go into further details, please be informed that I am writing without any other person(s) pre-knowledge of my contacting you on this transaction. Therefore I will appreciate same attitude to be maintained by you all through.

In my department I discovered an abandoned sum of US$8.5M, (Eight 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 January 31st 2000. You shall 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 be sending 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.
In appreciation of your assistance, I am offering you 35% of the total sum. 5% for contingencies (cost of transfer/other charges) likely to be incurred during the course of transaction, while the remaining 60% 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 Thompson.
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 finish reading this mail. Call me on My telephone number +226 7878 8119.

I await for your favourable respose.
Yours Faithfully,
Dr. Idris Adamu.
+226 7878 8119
_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam