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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: "ALHAJI BUNU USMAN FAROUK" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <factfindings011@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:52:02 -0700
Subject: PLEASE CLARIFY THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENCY ( FACT FINDING COMMISSION ).
FROM DESK OF ALHAJI BUNU FAROUK.
ATTENTION OF: BONAFIDE BENEFICIARY .
 
By legislative resolution reached on 6th December 2007 following the complaint and petition received by the Office of the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (ALHAJI UMARU USMAN YARADUA) from foreign beneficiaries over the non-payment of their claims, this presidential commission on fact finding and foreign payment was inaugurated to release immediately all the payment that have received approval like yours.
 
We are pleased to inform you that we have verified every aspect of your payment and have submitted awritten report to the President of Nigeria, the House of Senate and the Federal House of Representative sub committees on Finance and Foreign Payment. We are going to transfer your payment upon receiving your confirmation because we are confused on which account to make the transfer into as we received a Bank Account details from this man claiming to be the rightful beneficiary thereby contradicting your earlier account detail in our data bank.
 
PLEASE CLARIFY THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION
(1). Did you at any point transfer your right of ownership to one MR. MARK WILLIAMS , to claim and receive the payment on your behalf?
 
(2). His claim was backed with a "Deed of Agreement "in his favour thereby indicating the fund destination to the following account.Account name: MARK WILLIAMS, Account No: 1010174545529 Bank Name: Wachovia Bank, Swift Code: pnbpus33 are you aware of this?
 
You are required as a matter of urgency to confirm the legitimacy of the above claim and the reason for such change. In event you did not authorize such claim, please confirm to us immediately by way of application for contract payment stating your authentic account details, contract number and amount for the authentication and normalization through the below E-mail.
 
All letters must be attention to the Chairman of the Commission ALHAJI BUNU FAROUK. You are required to submit this authentication before the transfer will be effected as we are bound to recognize  MARK WILLIAMS claim and release the payment if we do not receive you submission to this enquiry as quickly as possible.
 
ALHAJI BUNU FAROUK
Chairman of the Commission
Telephone :+2347087938995
NB: This message supersedes any other message or information in respect to your payment. And Please for your information stop any further communication with any office or person.

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