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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: "mimi philip" <mrsmimi.philip10@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mrsmimiphilip@voila.fr
Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 12:27:26 +0000
Subject: PLEASE REPLY ME URGENTLY.


*FROM THE DESK OF MRSMIMI PHILLIP.
BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER,
BANK OF AFRICA (BOA) OUAGADOUGOU,
BURKINA FASO. ( WEST AFRICA ). *
**
* 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 seven years and above, the money can 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 I 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 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
letter. *
* *
*Trusting to hear from you immediately.
Yours faithfully
MRSMIMI PHILLIP. Bill and exchange manager,
Bank Of Africa.(BOA) .*
* *

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