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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: smooth john <mr_smooth_5@hotmail.fr>
Reply-To: <mr_smooth_1956@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 14:10:45 +0000
Subject: URGENT REPLY PLEASE




From: The Office Of:
Mr Smooth Drogba
Chief Accountant Bank of Africa
Ouagadougou Burkina Faso.

Attention please
I AM Mr Smooth Drogba chief accountant BANK OF AFRICA ANNEX (BOA)
BURKINA FASO
WEST AFRICA. I am contacting you based on Trust and confidentiality that you will keep this as top secret and don't be scared or surprised, I am the Chief Accountant BANK OF AFRICA and I have an opportunity to transfer sum of US$10.5 MILLION (TEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED UNITED STATE DOLLARS) I have the courage to look for a reliable and Honest Personwho will be capable for this important business Transaction, believing that you will never let me down either now or in Future. The owner of this account is MR RON MORRIS, foreigner and the Manager Of petrol chemical service, here before his sudden death, a chemical engineer by Proffession. He died with his entire family, they were among the victims of December 25, 2003 Air-Crash Incident in Benin Republic, The bank has made series of efforts to contact any of the relatives to claim this money but without success.My personal Investigation as a top officer of the bank proved to me as well that his company does not know anything About this account. I want to transfer this money into a safe foreignaccount abroad but I Don't know any foreigner, I know that this message will come to you as a surprise as we don't know ourselves before, but be sure that it is real And A Genuine business. hope that you will never let me down in this transaction, at the conclusion of this business, you will be giving 40% of the total amount, 60% will be for me. I look forward to your earliest reply by email for more details

Thanks.
Best regards
Mr Smooth Drogba
_________________________________________________________________
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