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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

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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.

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: frankzuma2002@webmail.co.za
Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 18:09:55 +0200
Subject: CRY FOR BUSINESS ASSISTANCE

FROM FRANK ZUMA
TEL:+27-83-522-4225

KEEP AS CONFIDENTIAL

I am a staff of bank in Africa. I will
give you the name of my bank and other important
information if I receive a positive reply from you.
For security reasons I cannot disclose my full
identity to you now until I am sure of your
cooperation. I work in the operations dept where I
serve as account officer to numerous customers. One of
the customers whom I worked as his account officer was
a wealthy diamond merchant from neighboring Sierra
Leone. He lost his family in the war. He was lucky to
escape alive and came to this country with his wealth
intact. Unfortunately he died last year.

Because this man was good to me when he was alive, I
took it uponmyself to travel to his country last
month, to see if I could locate any of his close
relations . On reaching there I discovered that his
only surviving uncle died a few months back. I
sponsored this trip on my own and nobody in the bank
knew I was undertaking the journey so I did not
present any official report of my findings in South Africa.

Now there are two things I could do with regards to
the dead mans money. First, as his accounts officer, I
could formally notify the bank authorities that the
man is dead and has no next of kin. In this case the
money would be forfeited to the government after some
time. As a matter of fact this is the proper thing I
am supposed to do.

Another thing I can do is to arrange for someone else,
a foreigner, to act as the next of kin of the late man
so that he will claim the money. This is the option
that I can do to help anybody and myself since the
money actually is public fund due to the fact that my
friend was a close lly to the late brutal military
president that looted government treasury and that is
why I have chosen to do it. I want you to be my
partner. All you would have to do is act as the next
of kin of the dead man and the whole money in the
account will be transferred to your account. As the
accounts officer to the late man, I have all the
necessary documents that you will require to claim the
money in the account.

The total money in the account is USD17 million. Your
share will be 30% which is USD5,100,000. My own share
will be 69%, which is USD11,730,000. We shall keep 1%
which is USD170,000 for expenses. Reach me immediately
by mail so that I can give you further details.Also
provide me your direct tel/fax to reach you.
Yours truly,

FRANK ZUMA.

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam