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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: "Engr. Frank Thabi" <frankthabi12@mynet.com>
Reply-To: <frankthabi3@mynet.com>
Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2013 17:18:45 +0700
Subject: Crude Oil Agent License Needed

Hello,

I choose to reach you through e-mail, as it is the fastest medium of
communication irrespective of the fact that it has been greatly abused.
I deem it necessary to introduce you to a lucrative business
opportunity. I'm talking of crude oil trading! This is considered as the
most legitimate and fastest money making machinery anyone can setup.

A crude oil "lifting license" gives the owner the mandate of the
National Oil Company (Suppliers of the crude oil), to locate crude oil
buyers and arrange a buy/sale crude oil transaction between the oil
company and the crude oil buyers. The "lifting license" syndrome came
into place because the national oil company does not deal directly with
the buyers of the crude oil rather; they prefer to issue oil "lifting
license allocations" to individuals/companies to assist them to market
the crude oil which they produce. Anyone that owns an ?lifting license"
from the local National Oil Company is entitle d to a $2.00 commission
from the oil company on each barrel of crude sold to the buyer and
another $1. 00 commission from the buyer. In total, oil lifting license
owners receives a $3.00 commission on each barrel of crude sold by the
oil company. Please note that the commission rates of $2.00 and $1.00
normally increases in times of crude oil scarcity.

The smallest license allocation/quantity one can procure from the
National Oil Company is for the sale of 500,000 barrels of crude
monthly/per transaction.This implies that 500,000 barrels of crude oil
will be assigned to the license owner for sale per month. This
allocation size will earn the license owner about ($3.00 multiply by
500,000 barrels) which is $1.5 million gross commissions monthly. If one
is lucky to secure a bigger allocation that means you will be earning
more commissions monthly. These commissions will be
calculated and paid to the license at the end of the sales transaction.

In case you decide to invest in this money spinning project; I will
personally reveal to you a well packaged procedure to acquire an oil
lifting license. I will personally assist you to locate the buyers of
the crude oil and facilitate the sales transactions for you while the
resulting commissions will be wired into your overseas nominated banking
co-ordinates as the license owner. You need a "seller agent" to assist
you to sale the crude since you are alien to this business and do not
know the buyers for the crude oil and also because you are not locally
resident here.

Feel free to ask for clarifications.

Engr. Frank

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