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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: "Fred Clark" <fredclark@legwork.com.ng>
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 09:55:18 +0200
Subject: CONTACT OCEANIC BANK PLC FOR YOUR ATM CARD


Hello

I have contacted my secretary to confirm if you have received the
compensation draft cheque of ( $2.5Million USD UNITED STATES DOLLARS ) which
I issued in your name,but he told me that he could not send it to you
because of the courier charges. Now I have called my bank to cancel any
payment regards to the draft cheque and then authorized them to transfer the
payment into ATM CARD in your name which they did.

As of now be informed that all charges has been paid and the ATM CARD
is going to be in your name, but to reactivate the ATM Card you have to
forward your current informations as requested below to the bank and the
only money you will pay to the bank is US$168.00 for the ATM Card
Reactivation fee, then they will send you the ATM CARD for you immediate
use..

Here are the informations you have to forward to the bank:

1. YOUR FULL NAMES:------------
2.COUNTRY:-----------------
3. Postal ADDRESS:-------------
4. PHONE NUMBER:------------
5. SEX:------------------
6. AGE:-------------------

CONTACT PERSON: DR. FRED VICTOR
Director, ATM Foreign Operation Dept.
OCEANIC BANK PLC Cotonou, Benin Republic.
Phone: +229 93893402
Email :oceanicbank@legwork.com.ng

Get back to me once you received the ATM CARD ok.

Thanks and God bless you.

Regards
Fred Clark

Anti-fraud resources: