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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: William Edu <edu_william01@yahoo.fr>
Date: Fri, 30 May 2014 16:11:56 +0300
Subject: From Mr. Edu William


>From Mr. Edu William,

Compliment of the day. Excuse my intrusion into your private life without
your prior permission. I hope my mail will not cause you much embarrassment
as I write to you in good faith.

This proposal is real, therefore I will like you to consider it very
important and I'm assuring you that it is not a joke. I am Mr. Edu William,
of BTCI BANK Lomé Togo ( Banque Togolaise pour le Commerce et lindustrie).
I am working in Audit and Account Unit. During the course of our auditing
last year, I discovered a floating fund in an account opened in our branch
in 1990 and since 1999 the account has not been operated again. After going
through some old files in the records, I discovered that the owner of the
account Mr. DePledge Norman, died along with his family, his wife and two
kids in plane crash on Monday 2ND September 1998 GMT 14:22 UK while they
were flying from New York to Geneva. You can check on this website about
the accident
http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9809/swissair.victims.list/index.html

The owner of this account late Mr. DePledge Norman who was an origin of
your country, a business man based here in Togo. He use to supply goods to
most of the Oil servicing company here in Togo before he got a contract
with the Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of the Houston-based oil
company Halliburton in Iraq in 1998. According to reliable information I
gathered by myself. Meanwhile the total amount involved is amounting to
(USA $4.5,000,000.00), therefore I am contacting you as a foreigner to
present you as the next of kin to this our deceased client so that the
proceeds of his account with our Bank amounting to ($ 4.5 million US
dollars) can be paid to you and then you and I will share the money. The
money can’t be approved to a local account here; it could only be approved
to any foreigner with valid information of the deceased account.

I know that you will be surprised to receive this message since we have not
met before, however this is the only way I can contact you at this moment
due to the nature of this deal. We shall know ourselves better as soon as
you indicate your interest to work with me. I just want you to know that I
have had everything planned out so that we shall come out successful, all I
require is your honest co-operation to enable us see this deal through.

Please get back to me soonest for more information. I'm looking forward to
hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Mr. Edu William.

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