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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: "BANK OF AFRICA (BOA)" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bankofafricaboa@centrum.cz>
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2011 03:01:29 -0000
Subject: [´ËÓʼþ¿ÉÄÜЯ´ø²¡¶¾£¬ÇëСÐÄ´ò¿ª£¡] IN YOUR OWN INTEREST GET BACK TO US.

Attention Beneficiary,

We write to confirm from you what we just heard from Mr. Allan Brown Gerald, about yourself. He came to our office last week and submitted a claim form application and informed us that you are seriously sick and because of your illness, you signed a deed of assignment with him and willed him to claim your US$4,753M compensation money which we are about to transfer to you.

We hereby decided to contact you officially to find out if the information we received from the above named man is truth or false. Failure to reply back in the next 48hrs simply means that the information we received is truth.

Meanwhile, in your own interest you are advised to reply back to us to enable us stop any further communication with Mr. Allan Brown Gerald and group. We have finalized arrangement concerning the transfer of your fund pending when we receive confirmation e-mail from you.

Finally, you have to reconfirm to us your full name, your home or company’s address and your cell phone number and your home telephone number for verbal discussion in case of any emergency. Office Tel: +234-709-346-9978

Yours faithfully,

Al-Ahmed Danmagaji
The Director Foreign Operations
Bank Of Africa (BOA)
Mobile Tel: +234-809-557-7356

Anti-fraud resources: