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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: "Paul Kala" <info@orabaa.com>
Reply-To: paulkala2001@hotmail.com
Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 04:42:24 +0000
Subject: Can I Trust You???



FROM MR.PAUL KALA.
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING UNIT,
FOREIGN REMITTANCE DEPT.
FINANCIAL BANK PLC
LOME -TOGO

ATTN: PLEASE,


I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance Department of banque internationale afrique. I am writing following the information about you through International web directory and wish you are capabile and reliable to champion this business opportunity.

In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum ofUS$5.5M USD.(Five Million Five Hundred Thousand US dollars). in an alloted vault in the bank that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his entire family in may 2002 in a plane crash in kenya.

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 it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines and laws but unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next-of-kin or relation died along side with him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I and other officials in our institution now decided to make this businness proposal to you and release the safe-box containing 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 treasuryunclaimed The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money/deposit remained unclamed after six years, the money/deposit will be transfered into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund.

The request for a foreigner as next-of-kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a Togolese can not stand as next-of-kin to a foreigner. We agree that 15 % of this money will be for you as foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, 5 % will be set aside for expenses incured during the business and 80 % would be for me and my colleagues.

Thereafter I and my colleagues will visit your countryfor disbursement accoding 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 relation or next-of-kin of the deceased. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or e-mail the text of the application you will transcribe as your order and send to the bank. 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.

I awaits your urgent responce.

Yours Faithfully,
Mr.Paul Kala.


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