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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
  (+225 +229 +234 +27 +31 +32 +34 +44 other)
• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
  1 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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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.

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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "million united states dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
  • ",000,000" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
  • "00,000.00" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
• This email message is a "Zimbabwe" scam.
• This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
  • +27839643540 (South Africa, prepaid mobile phone)
  • +27866100865 (South Africa, prepaid mobile phone)
• This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
  • ahmeedkarim@yahoo.com
  • ahmedkarrim@hotmail.com

Fraud email example:

From: "ahkarim Gazeta.pl" <ahkarim@gazeta.pl>
Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 08:53:41 -0700
Subject: i need your help please


FROM AHMED KARIM
E MAIL: ahmeedkarim@yahoo.com or ahmedkarrim@hotmail.com
FAX: +27-86 610 0865/ TEL: +27 83 964 3540

Attn: Sir/Madam

I know you will be surprised to receive this proposal. Actually I got your
contact address from the South African Information Exchange International
[SAIEI] here in South Africa when I was making an intensive research for my
investment in your country. Then, I decided to contact you directly. First
and foremost, by introduction, I am Mr. Ahmed Karim, the only surviving son
of the late Eng. Ali Karim of Zimbabwe.

During the current crisis against the farmers of Zimbabwe by the supporters
of our President Mugabe to claim all the white owned farms in our country,
he ordered all the white and rich black farmers to surrender their farms to
his party members and their followers. My father was one of the rich black
farmers in the country and a major financier/sponsor of the opposition party
Movement for Democratic Change {MDC} and knowing that my father did not
support his Political ideology and long stay in Government, the president
Robert Mugabe's supporters invaded my father's farm, struggled my parents to
untimely death. You can not believed that they kept me and my young sister
hostage and I watched our parents burned to ashes.

After the death of my father and mother, I and my younger sister decided to
move out of Zimbabwe for the safety of our life. Before the death of my
father, he has already sold most of the family businesses, as if he foresaw
the looming danger and drawn my attention to a deposited cash asset of Seven
Million United States Dollars [US$7,000,000.00] he realized from the sales
of our farmland and profits maximizes. His intentions were to establish new
farms in Republic of Swaziland and Malawi before the ugly incidence that
took away his life. This fund is presently being kept away in a
Security/Finance Company in Pretoria, the capital city of South Africa for
safe keeping.

I am looking for any reliable person overseas who is willing to help me and
my sister to transfer this money out from South Africa and use it for
investment in his/her country because we are asylum seekers here in South
Africa and asylum seekers status in South Africa prohibits any refugee to
open or operate a non-resident bank account with any commercial bank through
which this fund will be channeled out into a nominated overseas account.
This is our reason of contacting you for assistance, as a foreigner,
believing that you could be trusted to be part of my family in the
management of this fund.

If my proposition is considered, for assisting us to transfer this money to
your country, we are ready to negotiate a commission with you as
compensation before the transfer is done, we have set aside 5% to cover any
expenses that we will incur during and after the transaction. We are obliged
to inform you that we do not force you to help us but from your sincere mind
or to take undue advantage of our present predicament. What is required most
is your absolute consent and supports that we are safe in your hands in
building this confidence reposed upon you from a distance family.

Please you can contact us on my private email above or call me on my number
above.

Note that the relevant legal documents of this asset are intact that
empowers our legal ownership of the asset and we can send this evidence to
you for your verifications.

Best Regards,
Mr. Ahmed Karim

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam