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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Alex Tucker <alextucker04@hotmail.fr>
Reply-To: <lexucker@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2007 05:54:05 -0400
Subject: In Confidence.



29 Rue du Commerce 06 BP 2517 Abidjan 06 Côte d’Ivoire Hello Dear,I know that this mail will come to you out of the blueas a total surprise. Well, I have a business proposalwhich I know might interest you. I believe that youwould be in a position to assist me in my bid totransfer the sum of (USD18.5M.) Eighteen Million FiveHundred Thousand United States Dollar into a foreignbank account. So study the following account carefullyand reply urgently. I am Mr.Alex Tucker, an Auditor of a bank herein Côte d’Ivoire.During the course of our auditing, Idiscovered a floating fund in an account opened in thebank in 1993 and since 1997 nobody has operated onthis account.After a lot of investigation I discoveredthat the owner of the bank account died without abeneficiary. The money is floating and if I do notremit this money out it will be forfeited for nothing.The owner of the account is Mr. Magnus Mundigen, aforeigner. He died since 1997 and the bank account hasno beneficiary. My investigation proved to me thatnobody knows about this account or anything concerningit.So I want to grab this opportunity as it is no harmto nobody. I am here soliciting for your assistance as aForeigner because the money can not be approved to alocal person here. It can only be approved to anyforeigner with valid international passport or driverslicense and foreign bank account because the money atsake is in U.S dollars and the former owner of theaccount is a foreigner. The management must approvethis payment to you if you have the correctinformation of this account, which I will give to you,upon your positive response and once I am convincedthat you are capable and will meet up with instructionof key bank official who is deeply involved with me inthis project.with my influence and the position of thebank official, we can transfer this money to anyforeigner’s reliable account, which you can providewith assurance that this money will be intact pendingour physical arrival at your end for sharing. Notethat an existing foreign bank account or an empty newone can serve to receive this money. The bank officialwill destroy all documents of the transactionimmediately this money is into your nominated bankaccount. At the conclusion of this business, you willbe given 20% of the total amount, 75% will be for thebank official and I, while 5% will be for expenses bothparties might have incurred during the course of thistransaction. May I stop here. Reply urgently so that I will informyou the next step to take. Send also your privatephone and fax number including the full details of thebank account to used for the deposit.Best regards, Alex Tucker.
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