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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
• "Is that email a scam?" - Check it online here!
  
• Frequently asked Questions (419 FAQ)
• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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• Company names mentioned in 419 spam:
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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.

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:

• An email address listed inside this email has been used in a known fraud before.
• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "i have a new email address!" (this SPAM email was probably sent to thousands of people)
  • "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
• This email message is a next of kin scam.
• This email lists free webmail addresses. Use of such addresses is typical for scams. Lotteries, banks and any but the smallest of companies do not normally use such addresses. Criminals use them to anonymously send and receive email at Internet cafes.
  • raflbn16@yahoo.com (email address has been used in a known fraud before)

Fraud email example:

From: Raphael Bayan <raflbn16@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: rafelbn@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2008 12:13:46 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: From Ralph.


I have a new email address!You can now email me at: raflbn16@yahoo.com



- Dear Confidant,I am contacting you in regards to a business transfer of a large sum of money from a dormant account. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that all will be well at the end of the day. My name is Mr. Raphael Bayan. a staff of one of the leading private banks in my Country Ivory Coast. I discovered an abandoned sum of US$7,500, 000.00 in an account that belongs to one of our foreign Customers (an American) late George Brumley. This very account has been dormant for some years now. After my investigations, I discovered that the account owner has died since July 2003 with all his family members in a charter plane crash on Mount Kenya. http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/07/20/kenya.crash/index.html since his death, nobody has come forward to lay claims to this money and recently my bank issued a notice that the account will be declared unserviceable and the funds called to the government treasury since no relative of the deceased customer came up. In order to avert this negative action, I seek your permission to have you stand as a next of kin so that funds can be released in your favor as the next of kin. Please acknowledge receipt of this message in acceptance of our mutual business endeavor by furnishing me with the following if you are willing to work with me Actually: Your full name, Postal address, Profession, Telephone and fax numbers, Date of birth. This information will enable me work on the Deceased account file so as to indicate you as his next of kin after which you can now apply to the Bank officially for the release of the funds to you as the next of kin to the Deceased. We are going to share the total sum on final conclusion of this project. If you are truly disposed and capable of handling this transaction from your end contact me. Regards, Raphael Bayan

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam