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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: "Thompson Oke" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <thompsonoke1@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2013 07:55:22 -0700
Subject: Urgent/Confidential

CONFIDENTIAL NOTICE:
This e-mail message is from Mr.Thompson Oke. This message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any review,use,distribution or disclosure by others is strictly prohibited.If you are not the intended recipient (or authorized to receive for the recipient),please contact the sender by reply email and delete all copies of this message.
Greetings to you,
 
This letter must come to you as a big surprise, but I believe it is only a day that people meet and become great friends and business partners.My name is Mr.Thompson Oke, the present branch Manager of a bank here in Nigeria West Africa. I write you this proposal in good faith, believing that I can trust you with the information I am about to reveal to you. Like I said, I have a transaction that will benefit both of us, as your assistance is required as a foreigner.
 
I use to head the Accounts department in my bank head office, but last December I was asked to take position of a Manager of our branch in Lagos who passed on,so that was how I became the present Manager and discovered a fortune. As I resumed duty, I discovered an account with total sum of $10.5 million that has not been operated on for the past 13 years.From my investigation,I found out that this account belongs to one Late Mr. Ziya Bazhayev a Russian big time Oil dealer, who unfortunately lost his life in the Air France Concorde  on July 26, 2000. You will read more news about the crash on visiting these site;
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/851119.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm
I have kept a close monitoring of the account since then and nobody has come forward to claim the  money as next of kin to the late Mr. Ziya Bazhayev meaning that no one is aware of the account. I can not directly take out this money without the help of a foreigner and that is why I am contacting you for an assistance to claim the funds and share it with me. As the Manager of my bank branch, I have the power to influence the release of the funds to any foreigner that comes up as the next of kin to the account, with the correct information concerning the account, which I shall give you.I am seeking your co -operation to present you as the next of kin to the account. There is practically no risk involved, the transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law.If you accept to work with me, I want you to state how you wish us to share the funds in percentage, so that both parties will be satisfied. Contact me as s
 
Thanking you in advance and may God bless you.
Please, treat with utmost confidentiality.
I wait your urgent response.
Regards,
Mr.Thompson Oke
 

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