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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• 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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "transaction is risk free" (almost true for the criminal - arrests of online criminals are rare)
  • "foreign remittance department" (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.

Fraud email example:

From: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <jamesali701@yahoo.fr>
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:52:34 +0000
Subject: Business Offer



Dear Friend,I am the manager of bill and exchange at the foreign remittance department of AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK (ADB) here in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of U.S $7.7m us dollars in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer (MR. ANDREAS SCHRANNER FROM GERMANY) who died along with his entire family in July 2000 in a plane crash. Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it, unless some body applies for the next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guiding and laws but unfortunately we learnt that his next of kin died along with him in the plane crash. I agree that 35% of this money will be for you as a respect to the provision of a foreign account , 10% will be set aside for expenses incurred during the business and 55% would be for me Thereafter, I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage indicated Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you designated account. Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you a the text of application, I will not fail to bring to your notice this transaction is risk free Yours Faithfully,James Ali
_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam