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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: "ENGR.MAXI LULU" <engrmaxi_lulu@yahoo.de> (may be fake)
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2005 16:42:01 +0200
Subject: call me please

From The Desk Of Manager Credit and foriegn Bills
Absa Bank South Africa
Harfield,
Pretoria South Africa.
Attention: Director/Ceo.

My name is Engr.maxi Lulu,the Manager,Credit
and Foreign bills of ABSA BANK SOUTH AFRICA. I am writing in
respect of a foreign customer of our bank with account
number -908-14-255-114 whose name is Cho, Kwiyoung(Mr.), an
American citizen who died in a plane
crash[Korean Air Flight 801] with the whole passengers
onboard on August 6,1997.And for your perusal you can
view this web site

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9708/06/guam.passenger.list

Since the demise of this customer, I personally
has watched with keen interest to see the next of kin
but all has proved abortive as no one has come to
claim his funds of US$5.5M (Five Million Five
Hundred Thoudsand United States Dollars) which has
been with our branch for a very long time. On this
note, I decided to seek for whom his name shall be
used as the Next of Kin as no one has come up as his
next of kin. And the banking ethics here does not
allow such money to stay more than eight years, because
the money will be recalled to the bank treasury as
unclaimed fund after this period.

In view of this I got your contact through a trade
journal when i was making a research on a foreigner i
will use in this great opportunity. For your assistant
I am willing give you 30% of the total amount. Upon the
receipt of your response, I will send you by fax or
e-mail the letter of application which you will type
sign and send back to our bank to enable us start this
processing of this claim.I will not fail to bring to your
notice
that this business is hitch free and that you should
not entertain any fear as all modalities for the
smooth and easy transfer of this fund has been
finalized, this transaction will be complited within
five banking days of recieving your response, after
you apply to the bank as a relation to the deceased.
When you receive this letter. Kindly send me an e-mail or
call me
signifying your decision. Please include your private
Tel/Fax numbers for quick communication on my personal
email address:engrmaxi_lulu@malaysia.com

Yours Sincerely,

Engr.maxi Lulu
Manager Credit and Foriegn Bills
Absa Bank South Africa



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