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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: idris musa <id_ris_musa7@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <idrismusa0111@yahoo.fr>
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:41:41 +0000
Subject: TREAT AS URGENT AND CONFIDENTIAL.



FROM THE DESK OF Mr.IDRIS MUSA.BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)OUAGADOUGOU,BURKINA FASO.WEST AFRICADear Friend,Compliment of the season,I know that this mail will come to you as a surprise as we have never met before. My name is Mr.Idris Musa.I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department of Bank Of Africa (BOA). I crave your indulgence as i contact you in such a surprising manner. But I respectfully insist you read this letter carefully as I am optimistic it will open doors for unimaginable financial rewards for both of us.In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of Fifteen Million,Three Hundred Thousand US dollars (US$15.3m) only , in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in Kenya crash, On the 21st of July, 2003. Since we got information about his death, the bank has 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 we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relatives died with him at the plan crash leaving nobody behind for the claims.And for your perusal you can view this sitehttp://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/20/kenya.crash/index.htmlIt is therefore upon this discovery that I 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 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 five years, the money will be transferred into the Bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of a foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe can not stand as next of kin to a foreigner. I agree that 30% of this money will be for you as my 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..Thereafter I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages 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 to 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 receipt of your reply,I will give you more details about this deal as well as a specimen of the text of the application which you will fill and send to the bank .I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is hitch free and that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this letter.Trusting to hear from you immediately.Yours faithfully,Mr.IDRIS MUSA.
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