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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: "Mr.Donald Kaberoka" <mr.donkab@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 21:23:31 +0000
Subject: Assalamu'alaykum!!!!!

With Due Respect,

Assalamu'alaykum!!!!!

I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance
department of African development bank (ADB). I crave your indulgence
as i contact you in such a surprising manner. But I respectfully
insist you read this letter carefully as I am optimistic it wills open
doors for unimaginable financial rewards for both of us. In my
department we discovered an abandoned sum of Thirty Five Million US
dollars (US $10.5m) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign
customer who died along with his entire family in a plan crash.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his
next of kin to come over and claim his money because we can not
release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation
to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines but
unfortunately we learnt that all his supposed next of kin or relation
died along with him at the plan crash leaving nobody behind to come
for the claim.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this
business proposal to you so that the money could be released to you as
the next of kin for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is
coming for it and i don’t want this money to go into the bank treasury
as unclaimed Bill.

The Banking law and guideline here stipulates that if such money
remained unclaimed after five years, the money will be transferred
into the Bank treasury as "unclaimed fund". The request for a
foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact
that the customer was a foreigner and a Togolise cannot stand as next
of kin to a foreigner. We agree that 35% of this money will be for you
as a foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign
account, 5% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the
business and 60% would be for me.

There after I will visit your country for disbursement according to
the percentage indicated. Therefore to enable the immediate transfer
of this fund to you as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as
relation or next of kin of the deceased indicating your bank name,
your bank account number, your private telephone and fax number for
easy and effective communication and location wherein the money will
be remitted.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the
text of the application. I will not fail to bring to your notice that
this transaction is hitch free and that you should not entertain any
atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made for the
transfer.

I need a capable and able person who will handle and manage this fund
because it is not a small amount of project. You should contact me
immediately as soon as you receive this letter. Trusting to hear from
you immediately.

Yours faithfully,
Mr.Donald Kaberoka,
Bill and exchange manager,
African Development bank ADB.

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