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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: "rose claire" <rose_claire09@unimail.mn>
Reply-To: frank_ali01@yahoo.fr
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2008 19:20:00 +0000
Subject: URGENT AND CONFIDENDIELLE


*URGENT AND CONFIDENDIELLE*
*My Dear
*
*
I am Mr FRANK ALI, the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign
remittance department Bank Of Africa.*
*In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of US$14.5M (fourteen
million five hundred thousand US dollars) in an account that belongs to one
of our foreign customer who died along with his family in the 2003 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 guide lines and lawsbut 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 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.*
**
*The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after six years, the money will be transferred into the bank
treasury as unclaimed fund.*
**
*The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by
the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Burkina cannot stand as
next of kin to a foreigner.*
**
*I agree that 45% of this money will be for you as respect to the provision
of a foreign account , 5% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the
business and 50% be for me.*
**
*Thereafter, 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 where the money
will be transfer.*
**
*Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of
the application. 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 mail,
Trusting to *
**
*Write my private e-mail*
frank_ali01@yahoo.fr<http://fr.mc267.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=frank_ali01@yahoo.fr>
**
*hear from you immediately.*
*Yours faithfully.
Mr FRANK ALI,*

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