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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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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "micheal efe" <mkefeld@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: mkefeld@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 02 Nov 2005 09:09:14 +0000
Subject: GOOD DAY



ENGR.Micheal Efe
email:mkefeld@hotmail.com
Email: mkefeld@yahoo.com

I am the Chairman of the Contract Award Committee of the Oil Ministry here
in Nigeria, for security reasons, I may not wish to disclose how I got your
email address for now.
After due deliberation with my partner, I decided to forward to you
this business proposal, we want you to assist us receive the sum of Twenty
eight million, six hundred thousand united state bills (us28.6m) into your
account.
This fund resulted from an over-invoiced contract awarded by
us under the budget allocation to my ministry and the bill was approved for
payment by the concerned ministries. The contract was executed, commissioned
and the contractor was paid his actual cost of the contract.Now, we are left
with the balance of us28.6m as the over invoiced amount,which we have
deliberately over estimated for our own use. Please note that the law
forbids civil servants to operate or own foreign accounts hence this
contact, we have agreed to share the money in the following percentages: 30%
for you, 60%for us 10 %for tax as may be required by your/our government.
Note that this transaction is very much free from all sorts of risk
hence the business was carefully planned before it was successfully executed
and we the officials involved in the deal have put many years in service to
our ministry. We have been exercising patience for this privilege for so
long not until the presidential announcement last week, that all foreign
contractors owed be paid forthwith, this will enable the presidency
reconcile our debt ratio with the outside world and to most of us, this is a
lifetime blessing we cannot afford to miss. Upon indication of your interest
to fully co-operate with us, a payment application/information form will be
sent to you via email for completion.
Note that the following information:
a)Your name and address,
b)your private phone number and mailing address will be needed to enable us
seek/secure approval of the fund from the concerned government
quarters/ministries within 3-4 banking days.
As soon as we confirm receipt of this money in your nominated bank
account, my partner and I will come over to your country to arrange for our
own share and possibly invest part of this money in your country.
Let honesty and trust be our watchword throughout this transaction. I
shall furnish you with some details about myself. Your prompt reply
will be highly appreciated.
Best regards.
Engr. Michael Efe


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