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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: Nana Ahmed <nana-a76@msn.com>
Reply-To: nanaahmedbf@voila.fr
Date: Mon, 3 Oct 2011 09:03:16 +0000
Subject: THIS TRANSACTION IS STRICLY CONFIDENTIAL.

FROM THE DESK OF MR Nana AHMED.
BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A.) BILL AND EXCHANGE
DEPARTMENT, OUAGADOUGOU , BURKINA-FASO,
 
Dear Partner,
My Name is Mr  Nana AHMED, the Bill and Exchange (assistant) Manager of the BANK OF AFRICA (B.O.A), Ouagadougou Burkina Faso.
In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of USD$18.3M (EIGHTEEN MILLION THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND U.S.A DOLLARS). In an account that belongs to this our foreign customer who died along with his wife and children in the plane 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 cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as the 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 died alongside with him in the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim.
The request of foreigner in this transaction is necessary because our late customer was a foreigner and a Burkinabe cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner. On the account of your reliability and trust worthiness, I have decided to contact you in order to transfer the said amount into your nominated bank account, its 100% risk free. Upon receipt of the above mentioned I will send to you by fax or E-mail a TEXT OF APPLICATION which you shall re-type and fax to our foreign remittance Department, for easy execution of the
 
transaction.
 
All necessary documents shall be obtained on your behalf to back-up this claims. Kindly contact me on for security reason and for more explanations and possible means of transferring the fund into your account. If you accept my offer I shall compensate you with 30% of the money, 60% goes to me and my colleague, after which we shall visit your country for disbursement according to the percentages indicated, I am assuring you that with my position this money will hit your account before 7 banking working days.
Reply with the assurance, come up with the information's showed below:-
 
1)YOUR FULL NAME............................
2)YOUR AGE...........................
3)MARITAL STATUS...........................
4)YOUR CELL PHONE NUMBER............................
5)YOUR FAX NUMBER............................
6)YOUR COUNTRY...........................
7)YOUR OCCUPATION............................
8)SEX............................
9)YOUR RELIGION...........................
10)YOUR PRIVATE E-MAIL ADDRESS............................
 
NOTE: THIS TRANSACTION IS STRICLY CONFIDENTIAL.
 
Thanks for your assistance in advance.
 
Yours Sincerely,
Mr Nana AHMED
Bill and Exchange (assistant) Manager
 
 
 

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