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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "usman mohammed" <usman.mohammed05@gmail.com>
Reply-To: usmanmohammed1@hotmail.fr
Date: Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:18:24 +0000
Subject: I NEED YOUR URGENT RESPOND.


*FROM THE DESK OF MR.USMAN MOHAMMED. *
*BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
BANK OF AFRICA-(BOA)
OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO.*
*
CONFIDENTIAL.
*
* Dear Friend ,

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department
of Bank Of Africa.(BOA) I am writing following the impressive information
about you through one of my friends who runs a consultancy firm in your
country. He assured me of your capability and reliability to champion this
business opportunity. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of $
15.200 000 US dollars (million US dollars) . In an account that belongs to
one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in
November 2000 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
somebody applies for as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated
in our banking guidelines but 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 and
other officials in my department 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 guideline here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after Six to Seven 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 Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. We agree that
30 % of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect to the
provision of a foreign account,10 %will be set aside for expenses incurred
during the business and 60 %would be for ;me and my colleagues. There after
and my colleagues will visit your country for disbursement according to the
percentages indicated.*
* *
*Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as
arranged, you must apply first to the bank as relations 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 in the money will be remitted .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 no 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 letter.
*
*Trusting to hear from you immediately.*
*Yours faithfully
MR.USMAN MOHAMMED.*
*Bill and exchange manager,
Bank of Afrieca.(BOA)*

* *

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