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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: HUGO M BENITO <hugomatinbento73@fsmail.net>
Reply-To: hugomabinto@netscape.net
Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2006 20:19:13 +0200
Subject: MUTUAL BUSINESS PROPOSAL.


Dear Friend,
My name is Mr.Hugo matine Benito,An Audit officer in" LA CAIXA BANCO
ESPAÑA". I am writing following an oppurtunity in my office that will be
of imense benefit to both of us. In my department we discovered an
abandoned sum of ? 12.5.Million Euro (Twelve Million Five Hundred
Thousand Euros.) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers
Late Mr. Morris Thompson an American who unfortunately lost his life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January
31 2000, including his wife and only daughter. You can read more about
the crash by visiting this site which I got during my investigation;
please try to go through the site .
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his
next of kin or relatves to come over 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.
Unfortunately I learnt that his supposed next of kin being his only
daughter died along with him in the plane crash leaving nobody with the
knowledge of this fund behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this
discovery that I and two other officials in this department now decided
to make business with you and release the money to you as the next of
kin or beneficiary of the funds for safety keeping and subsequent
disbursement since nobody is coming for it .
We don't want this money to go back into Government treasury as
unclaimed bill.The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such money
remained after seven years the money will be transferred into banking
treasury as unclaimed funds.
We agreed that 35% of this money will be for you as foreign partner,
while the balance will be for my colleagues and me. I will visit your
country for the disbursement according to the percentages indicated above
once this money gets into your account. Please be honest to me.
Note this transaction is confidential and risk free. As soon as you
receive this letter, you should contact me at:-My email address is (hugomabinto@netscape.net) Please note that all necessary arrangement for the smooth release of these funds to you has been finalised. We will discuss much in details when I do receive your response. Thanks and waiting for your urgent reply.
Mr.Hugo Matine Benito

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