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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: john ume <johnuu4@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:20:53 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Please Reply


Dear ,

I never knew how hard meeting someone was until I decided to dig myself out of my career, and I know that this mail would come to you as surprise as we have not met before, but after going through your profile I find it wise to inform you that it would be prudent I front you on a business venture I independently investigated/discovered in my place of work.

I am MR. John Ume the Manager In-charge of Foreign Remittance Department (Bill and Exchanger) in one of the Investment Banks here in Ghana. There is this amount of Money in millions of United States Dollars lying dormant in our bank for Seven (7) good years now without anybody coming for claim.
I personally investigated/discovered this amount and I want to front you as the beneficiary of the money so that the money would be released to you for us to share.

Over here Banking ethics does not allow such money to stay more than 10years, after the tenth year the money will be recalled to the Bank treasury as unclaimed fund and would be shared among the Directors and Shareholders.
Let us not allow this, so indicate your interest in the transaction, upon you response I shall send you full details and how the business will be executed.

Please keep this proposal as top secret and delete if you are not interested.

Regards,

MR. John Ume

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