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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: "Mr Martin Suru" <mrmartinsuru@msn.com>
Reply-To: martinsuru2004@yahoo.it
Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2006 08:12:39 +0000
Subject: URGENT

FROM:The Desk of Mr martin suru,
Bill And Exchange Manager,(BOA)
(Bank Of Africa) Republic of Benin.

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL AND PRIVATE

Dear Friend,

Compliments of the day. I deceided to contact you after I received a worthy
information about yourreliability and honesty. Hence I confide in you.

I am Mr martin suru,from (The Bank of Africa Cotonou Republic of
Benin).During the course of our auditing we discovered the sum of Fifteen
Million Six hundred thousand united states dollars(USD$15.600.000.00)
floating in an account opened in this Bank since 1997 and as from 2001
nobody has operated on this account again, and after going through some old
files in the records I discovered that the owner of the account died without
a [HEIR]sept 11th 2001 by plane crash, hence the money is floating.

After due verification I noticed that no other person knows about this
account except his wife who was also invovled in the crash, and the account
has no other beneficiary and my investigation proved to me as well that
until his death he was the Director GOLD ARK [SARL]Since our bank,(Bank Of
Africa)Benin Rep.got information about his death, we have been expecting his
next of kin to come forward and claim his money because we cannot release it
unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as
indicated in our banking guidelines and policies but up to date nobody came
up to this bank as his next of kin or relative.

It is therefore upon this discovery that I and other officials in my
department now decided to make this businness proposal to you and release
the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety
and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming forth and we don't want
this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed Bill.

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 relation. And the country law here does
not allow such money to stay more than Five years, for the money will be
recalled to the government treasury as unclaimed after this period.

Upon the receipt of your response,I will send to you the application
form,bank'scontact and the next step to take. 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 fund transfer can be finalized
within fourteen banking days, after you apply to the bank as a relation to
the deceased.

It has been resolved that 30% will be for you while 10% has been maped out
to defray any expences that might be incured during the process of the
transaction.

Then 60% will be for me which shall be release afterthe funds must have been
remitted into your bank account.When you receive this letter, kindly send me
an e-mail signifying your decision. Including your privateTel/Fax numbers
for quick communication.

Hoping for a very successful business relationship with you.

Best Regards,
Mr martin suru.



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