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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

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

Fraud email example:

From: "ahmed tan" <ah_tan09@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: ah_taniju@yahoo.fr
Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 07:07:07 +0000
Subject: ASSISTANCE / PARTNERSHIP.

Dear Partner, Salam,
 
This mail might come to you as a surprise and the temptation to ignore it as unserious could come into your mind but please consider it a divine wish and accept it with a deep sense of humility, I am the manager of bill and exchange at the Foriegn Remittance Department of African Development Bank,Burkina Faso-West Africa, 
 
In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$10M (Ten million US dolloars) in an account that belongs to one of our foriegn customer who died along with his entire family in a plane crash. Since we got 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 some body applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidlines and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.
 
It is therefore upon this discovery that I and other officials in my department now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill because the banking law states that, if such fund remain unclaimed for many year's and then, the fund will be transfer into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill.
 
I agree that 30% of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foriegn account,  and 60% would be for me,while 10% will be for expenses (if there is any) There after I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage indicated. Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relation or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank name, your bank account number, your private telephone and fax number for easy and effective communication and location wherein the money will be remitted.
 
Upon the receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of the application to fill and send to the bank. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is free risk and you should keep this transaction (TOP SECRET) and do not let the bank notice that, I contacted you to claim this fund but I will be giving you all information from the bank until the fund is transfered into your account.
 
This transaction will only take us 14 banking days because as a banker, I know what to do and move the fund into your account without any delay. You should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.
 
You should contact me as soon as you receive this letter.
 
Yours faithfully.
 
Mr. Ahmed Taniju
Bill & Exchange Manager, ( A.D.B.)


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