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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: "CenBank" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <christkolade@centbank.info.ms>
Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2013 03:16:03 +0100
Subject: [SPAM HIGH] INFORMATION

Dear Sir,
 
After a serious thought, I have decided to reach you directly because I do not have anything against you, but your so called partner working with you to realize the remittance of your fund. Have you ever wondered why you have been going this vicious circle over the past years with respect to having your fund paid to you without any success? It is possible that you were not informed that your payment was brought to my bank for final transfer, neither were you informed about the truth behind the frustrations you have suffered. Well, like I said earlier, I have nothing against you or your payment but Im only trying to protect my interest and keep to agreement.
 
My name is Mr. Christ Kolade, I am the Director, International Wire Transfer/Telex Department, Central Bank of Nigeria (C.B.N). Sometime in the past, as Director of International Wire Transfer/Telex Department, C.B.N, I was approached by some senior Government officials from The Presidency and Ministry of Finance who requested that I assist them conclude a money transfer deal with you as the beneficiary and we all agreed. According to him, he wanted to use this strategy to transfer a huge amount of US Dollars by presenting you as “Beneficiary” whose fund has not been paid. This you may not know, but you have been pursuing this fund believing it to be wholly yours
 
Although we agreed that once I did that, I am going to get 20% of the total fund and will equally give me your contact information before I release the fund to your account in order to monitor confirmation of funds into your account so that I can make request for my 20%. When they noticed that I have programmed your fund for transfer and your name has been approved among the list of those to be paid as beneficiary, instead of letting me have your contact information to enable me regulate the transfer and confirm when it arrive your account to enable me send to you my account details for my share of 20%, they started avoiding me andresorted to threats.
 
Because of that I immediately deleted your Payment Initializing Code (PIC) among the list of those to be paid, which made it IMPOSSIBLE for the transfer to be completed to your account. However they became angry the more when they saw that their plan to use me did not work, they started bribing otherofficials to get another approval to enable them transfer the money to you but all the effort were to NO success. Payment Initializing Code (PIC) is a 12 digit code, which would be issued to you upon transfer of your fund. When the fund is transferred, you shall go to your bank with this 12 digits PIC and they will enter same in their system for confirmation of the fund into your account. Without the PIC, there is no how you can confirm nor access the transferred fund in your account.
 
I did not reveal the Payment Initializing Code (PIC) to any staff of the bank since it is the responsibility of my department to oversee every outgoing fund and its details. I actually have the opportunity to remit this fund to any account of my choice overseas, but since I have gotten your email address through a reliable and close friend of officials, and knowing full well you may have spent so much without knowing what has been going on, hence I decided to reach you to afford you the opportunity to recoup all you have spent.  Again bear in mind your payment has been here, and not in any payment center s you may have been made to believe.
 
Now if you want us (you & I) to work together for me to conclude the remittance to your account, these are my conditions. 
 
(I). YOU MUST KEEP OUR TRANSACTION HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL AND STOP FURTHER CONTACT WITH THOSE YOU HAVE BEEN IN CONTACT WITH REGARDING THIS PAYMENT, BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT TO GET INVOLVE WITH ANY OF THEM AGAIN IN LIFE, BECAUSE I HAVE NO TIME TO WASTE. SHOULD I DISCOVER YOUR CONTINUE COMMUNICATION WITH THEM, I WILL RUIN THE TRANSACTION COMPLETELY. 
 
(II). I WILL HAVE 50% OF THE TOTAL FUND BECAUSE IT IS ONLY TWO OF US AND YOU WILL KEEP 50%. YOU MUST ASSURE ME THAT YOU WILL NOT BETRAY ME, AND THAT MY OWN SHARE WILL BE SAFE UNTIL WHEN I ARRIVE IN YOUR COUNTRY FOR THE SHARING OF THE FUND. 
 
If the above conditions are acceptable to you, contact me as soon as possible to let us finalize all the arrangement and conclude the transaction immediately without any further delay. I will give you more important details once I hear from you based on if you promise to keep this arrangement confidential. 
 
Give me your reply on this email address,
 
Best Regards.
 
Mr. Christ Kolade
Director, International Wire Transfer/Telex Department,
Central Bank of Nigeria (C.B.N)

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