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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: BUSINESS PROPOSAL <mariausanga2015@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mariausanga2016@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 06 Nov 2016 23:01:49 +0100
Subject: GOOD BUSINESS DEAL



--
I am Mrs. Maria Emilia Usanga from Spain married to Mr. Jonathan Thabo
Usanga from South Africa, for seven years now we have two kids. I am the
manager bills and exchange at the foreign remittance department of a
bank here in Spain. I have a business proposal which I believe that will
be a very Good opportunity for both of us so I decided to contact you on
this business opportunity in our bank, the business is this,I discovered
an Abandoned sum of 45.5m US dollars (Forty Five Million Five Hundred
Thousand United States Dollars) in our safety deposit vault that belongs
to one of our foreign Customer who died along with his entire family on
11th March 2004 in a ghastly train explosion in Atocha, Madrid-Spain. 
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his
next of kin to come over and claim his money because the management can
not release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin to the
deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines but unfortunately I
learnt that all his Family died alongside with him in the train
explosion leaving nobody behind for the claim.

I have the entire secret information’s of this deposit which will help
you to claim this money as the next of kin. It is therefore upon this
discovery that I decided to make this business proposal to you and
release the money to you as the next of kin to the deceased since nobody
is coming for it and I don’t want this money to go into the banks
treasury as unclaimed funds or declared to the Government of Spain, once
this is done the Government of Spain will confiscate the funds, which is
not good for both of us. I agreed that 40 % of this money will be for
you as a foreign partner, in respect to your acceptance to do this
business with me, while 60 % would be for me and my family.
Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to your account
as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as the next of kin of the
deceased indicating your interest of claim of your inherited funds, upon
receipt of your reply through my e-mail, I will send to you by fax or
e-mail the text of the application which you will send to the bank. I
will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is a hitch
free that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required
arrangements have been made perfectly. At this moment you should feel
free to contact me through e-mail as soon as you receive this e-mail.
You should understand that this should be kept very confidential, let it
be between you, me and my husband only. This is the only way we can
achieve success.  I will level the whole arrangement here in the bank
for the transfer to be approved immediately.

Please take note my Husband is the only one that I have discussed this
business with and we both agreed to do this business with you, he
answers my phone anytime I am at work or not around my phone, for the
security of this business, please feel free to call my husband or send
me an e-mail and leave your contact e-mail,phone and fax numbers with
him to enable me get back to you as soon as possible.
Thanks and God Bless.

Best regards,

Mrs. Maria Emilia Usanga.

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