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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: "Joseph Ikem" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <joseph_i147@yahoo.fr>
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2010 15:27:31 -0500
Subject: My Second Email To You!

Dear friend,

I am Joseph Ikem, a fund servicing Manager with UBA financial group (www.ubaafricang.com) a contractor and an investor who is a customer named withheld since this is my second letter I am sending to you, made a deposit valued at us$10,000,000.00. Upon maturity, I sent a routine notification to his forwarding address but got no reply.

After three months we discovered from his contract employers that the depositor had died. On further investigation, I found out that he died without making a will, because the pre-documents he singed also leave a blank space for beneficiary, this means he is the depositor and beneficiary at the same time.

however, my proposal is to front you as the beneficiary to the deceased customer of our bank as complete the pre-documents by filling your name in the blank space before presenting it to the bank board of directors for approval, if this transaction interests you kindly let me know so I can advice you on how we are going to execute this deal and the total sum of us$10,000,000.00 will be paid and transfer to you by our bank for our mutual benefit.

I completely trust you to keep this proposition absolutely confidential and kindly forward your full names, contact address, telephone and fax numbers where I can reach you easily. I have suggested that we share the funds as follows 60% for me 40% for you, I look forward to your earliest response through my alternative email address below: (joseph_ikems1@live.co.uk) for security reasons.

Best regards,
Mr. Joseph Ikem.

Anti-fraud resources: