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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: "Engineer Usman Musa" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <usma-nmusa@live.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2010 19:45:07 -0700
Subject: WORK WITH US.....

Engineer Usman Musa,
Department of Budget and Planning
Ministry of Petroleum,
Lagos-Nigeria



Your candid attn:




REF: URGENT CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL.


Most competent people are choosen for competent jobs and assignments, and with that due respect have we also choosen to select you and contact you on this very confidential matter. Our Nigerian Chamber of Commerce and industry offers variety of names of notable people from your part of the
Globe. That was where I got your information from. Therefore, after due eliberation with my partners, we decided to forward to you this proposal. We believe that you would be in a position to help us in our bid to transfer the sum of US$41.5M(Forty-0ne million, five hundred thousand
dollars only) into a foreign account. We shall make it 100% legal as much possible as you would want.


We are members of the special committee for budget and planning of the Ministry of Petroleum. This committee is principally concerned with contract appraisals and approval of contracts in order of priorities as regards CAPITAL PROJECTS of the Federal Government of Nigeria. With our
positions, we have successfully secured for ourselves the sum of Forty-one Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars(US$41.5M). We are working with the present emocratically elected Government in my country, and we are seeking the support of Foreign Government to win the next
election coming up, which the race has started. So they have given directive to all Federal Parastatals to settle all Foreign Contractors being owed for contract that they have done. Therefore, our plan is to include your name as one of the contractors being owed in our corporation.

What we need from you is to provide a safe Account into which the funds will be transferred since Government Officials in my country are not allowed by our laws to Operate Foreign Accounts. It has been agreed that you will be compensated with US$8.3 Million of the remitted funds.
US$31.125Million belongs to us, while US$2.075Million will be set aside to offset expenses and pay the necessary taxes.

It may interest you to know that two years ago a similar transaction was carried out with one Patrice Miller, the C.E.O of Crane International Trading Corporation at number 135, East 57th street, 28th floor, New York 10022, with Telephone (212)308-7788 and Telex Number 6731689. After the agreement between both of us in which he was to take 25% of the money as his share, the money was duly transferred into his Account. We were disappointed on our arrival in New York as we were reliably informed that Mr. Patrice Miller was no longer on that address while his Telephone and Telex Numbers have been reallocated to somebody else. That was how we lost US$27.5M to Mr.Patrice
Miller.


This time around we would not want you to be like that. We need a more reliable and trustworthy person and a reputable Company to do this business with, hence we contacted you. So if you can prove yourself to be trusted and interested in this deal then we are prepared to do business
with you. What we want from you is the assurance that you will let us have our share when this amount of US$41.5M is transferred into your account.


If this proposal satisfies you, please contact us, so we can advice you on the modalities of the transaction. All modalities of this transfer, have been worked out and once started will not take more than 7 Banking days with the absolute support of all concerned. This transaction is 100% safe and risk free now and after the transfer. Kindly treat this as urgent and
very confidential.


Best regards.


Engineer Usman Musa,
Department of Budget and Planning
Ministry of Petroleum,
Lagos-Nigeria

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