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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: joseph mgobese <josephmgobese_5@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:38:28 +0200
Subject: CONFIDENTIALLY TO YOU SIR/MADAM.



>From Mr. Joseph Mgobese,First Natinal Bank Limited, (FNB) Johannesburg, South Africa.
EMAIL ;josephmgobese_276@yahoo.com

Dear Sir/madam,

I am Mr.Joseph Mgobese., manager of bills/exchange at the foreign remittance department of First Natinal Bank Limited,(FNB) in South Africa.In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of US$14,700,000.00(Fourteen Million, Seven Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only) in an account that belonged to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family, on November 1996, in a ghastly plane crash, and he happened to be a Foreigner.Since we got the 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 applied for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines. Unfortunately, nobody has come forward to claim this money. It is based on this that some officials in my department and I have decided to establish a cordial business relationship with you, hence by contacting you. We want you to present yourself as the next of kin through your relation with the deceased, so that the funds can be remitted into your account.
Moreover, we do not want the money to go into the government account as unclaimed bills. The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that any account abandoned or is dormant for a period of years, is deemed closed and all money contained therein forfeited to the government treasury account.Now, it is being speculated that the above sum will be transferred into the government account as an unclaimed fund on or before the end of 2007, when nobody come forward to lay claims. The reason for requesting you to present yourself as next of kin, is occasioned by, the fact that the deceased (customer) was a foreigner, and we have access to his detailed bio data which you will hold as a weapon to present yourself as the next of kin.
The mode of sharing after a successful transfer of the money into your account, shall be 70% to my colleagues and I, for the role you will be expected to play in this deal, we have agreed to give you 25% of the total sum and 5% for the expenses we are going to encounter by the two parties in the course of this transaction. Therefore, you are expected to reply this letter indicating your readiness and interest to participate in thisbusiness.
After receiving your reply, you will be communicated to with the exact steps to take. I expect your urgent response .I shall contact you for further discussion on this matter, to enable us conclude this transaction urgently without any delay or hitch.Please treat this business proposal as strictly confidential for security reasons considering my official position in First Natinal Bank Limited,(FNB).
Regards, Mr. Joseph Mgobese.
_________________________________________________________________
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