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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: "Mr Aka Okolo" <mrakaokolo1@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: mr_akaokolo_uba@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 12:00:51 +0000
Subject: From Mr Aka Okolo

>From Mr Aka Okolo
United Bank For Africa,
ILupeju Branch,
Lagos,Nigeria.

ATTN:

I am Mr Aka Okolo ,Branch Manager with United Bank For Africa,ILupeju
Branch, Lagos, Nigeria.I have an urgent and very profitable business
proposition for you that should be handled with extreme confidentiality.

On January 6,1998 a Foreign Consultant and contractor with the Nigerian
Railway Corporation Mr. Abbas Raymond by name made a numbered time Fixed
Deposit for twelve calendar months valued at US$15.6M (Fifteen Million, Six
Hundred United States Dollars Only) in my branch.

Upon maturity I sent a routine notification in accordance with the Bank
policy to his forwarding address but got no reply.

After a month we sent a reminder and finally we discovered from his contract
employers Nigerian Railway Corporation that Mr. Abbas Raymond, died from an
automobile accident.

On further investigation, we found out that he died without making a Will
and all attempts to trace his next of kin was fruitless. I therefore made
further investigations and discovered that Mr.Abbas Raymond did not declare
any next of kin or relations in all his official documents including his
Bank Deposit paperwork in my Bank.

This sum of US$15.6M has been carefully moved out of my bank to a Financial
and Security Company in Europe for safekeeping. No one will ever come
forward to claim it and according to the Law of my country, at the
expiration of 7 years the money will revert to the ownership of the State
(Government) if nobody applies to claim the fund.

This prompted i to contact you. We want to frontyou as the next of kin of
our late client thereby making you the legal beneficiary of the sum of $15.6
million U.S Dollars that is presently in a Financial and Security Company in
Europe.
I contacted you because it is against our code ofethics to own and operate
foreign accounts and yourassistance would be needed to claim the money in
the Financial and Security Company in Europe.

I have unanimously agreed that 25% of the entire sum would be for you if you
agree to take part in this profitable transaction,65% for me while the
remaining 10% would be used to pay back the expenses that may be incurred
during the course of the transaction by both parties after the fund has been
claimed and lodged in your account. In the event that you are genunely
interested in the transaction, the following information would be needed
from you to expedite action.

1) Your Full Name .

2) Your Residential or Company Address.

3) Your Private Mobile,Telphone and Fax numbers where you can be reached at
all time because this transaction entailsconstant communication.

The transaction is 100% legal and totally free of risks as all modalities
has been perfected to ensurethe hitch free succesof the transaction.

If you are interested, send the requested information via my private email
box as soon as possible so that we can proceed.

I am waiting for your urgent response

Mr Aka Okolo


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