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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: =?iso-8859-1?q?Clement=20Ghent?= <clement_ghent10@yahoo.com.ar>
Reply-To: clement_ghent2009@yahoo.fr
Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 07:18:49 -0800 (PST)
Subject: ATTENTION PLEASE


¡Tengo nueva dirección de correo electrónico!Ahora podés escribirme a: clement_ghent10@yahoo.com.ar



- Dear friend,With all due respect, may you please forgive my intrusion into your privacy.But firstly, let me introduce myself. I am Mr.Clement Ghent Director of the Audit and Reconciliation section of African Development Bank, Ouagadougou Burkina-Faso in WestAfrica. I am contacting you based on the fact that your profile as gotten from the federal chamber of commerce was good and commendable. This message might meet you in utmost surprise, however, it's just my urgent need for foreign partner that made me contact you for a business transaction.When auditing abandoned and outstanding accounts of the bank (ADB), I was privileged to discover the secret file of one of our late customers, who was a gold merchant here in the Republic of Burkina-Faso. He was involved in a plane crash while on a trip along with his entire family on 31 July 2003 and the all lost there lives.He happened to lodge some money into this bank either for personal use or for business of which we could not disclose. The said amount was US$10.5M (Ten Million, Five Hundred Thousand USA Dollars).My several frantic search proved unsuccessful as he neither left no Will nor any next of kin to this fund. Therefore, I have personally decided to contact you to seek your consent and to present you as the next of kin so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to you for our mutual benefit. As a foreigner, you stand a better position to be presented through documentation as the bonafide next of kin and partner since the deceased is also a foreigner. I can not do this deal alone as a citizen of Burkina-Faso. I have the opportunity of transferring this left over as I am the director of the Audit and Reconciliation section of the Bank, if only you will give me a full assurance that you can handle this business.If you agree to my business proposal and on receipt of your positive response, further details and modalities for the transfer will be forwarded to you.Your prompt response, even to the contrary, will be highly appreciated. You can write me on my personal e-mail addres (clement_ghent2006@yahoo.com) with best regards,Mr. Clement Ghent.


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