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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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Fraud email example:

From: "INFO AFDB" <info@a-f-db.com>
Reply-To: mrsmaryabu@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 12:29:30 +0000
Subject: STRICTLY A PRIVATE BUSINESS PROPOSAL

FRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK OF NIGERIA(A.D.B)
DESK OF :MRS.MARY ABU
Lagos-Nigeria.
RC.27199

Attn: President/C.E.O,

Dear Sir,

STRICTLY A PRIVATE BUSINESS PROPOSAL

I am MRS.MARY ABU, The manager, Bills and Exchange
at the Foreign Remittance Department of the A.D.B Bank
of Nigeria Plc. I am writing this letter to ask for
your support and cooperation to carry out this
business opportunity in my department. We discovered
an abandoned sum of $15,000,000M US DOLLARS (15
million United States Dollars only) in an account that
belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along
with his entire family of a wife and two children in
November 1999 in a Plane crash.
Since we heard of his death, we have been expecting
his next-of-kin to come over and put claims for his
money as the heir, because we cannot release the fund
from his account unless someone applies for claim as
the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our
banking guidelines.

Unfortunately, neither their family member nor distant
relative has everappeared to claim the said fund. Upon
this discovery, I and other officials in my department
have agreed to make business with you and release the
total amount into your account as the heir of the fund
since no one came for it or discovered he maintained
account with our bank, otherwise the fund will be
returned to the banks treasury as unclaimed fund.
We have agreed that our ratio of sharing will be as
stated thus;
20 % for you as foreign partner,
75 % for us the officials in my department and
5 % for the settlement of all local and foreign
expences incurred by us and you during the course of
this business.

Upon the successful completion of this transfer, I and
one of my colleagues will come to your country and
mind our share. It is from our 75 % we intend to
import Agricultural Machineries into my country as a
way of recycling the fund.

To commence this transaction, we require you to
immediately indicate your interest by a return e-mail.

Note also, this transaction must be kept STRICTLY
CONFIDENTIAL because of its nature.

I look forward to receiving your prompt response.

MRS.MARY ABU.
AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK OF NIGERIA(A.D.B).

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