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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: Dr Ibrahim Shorowa <dribrahim.shorowa@gmail.com>
Reply-To: shorowadribrahim@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 01:57:36 -0500
Subject: ASSALAMU?ALAYKUM!!!!!



--
ASSALAMU?ALAYKUM!!!!!


DEAR FRIEND

With due respect to your person and much sincerity of purpose, I make this
contact with you as I believe that you can be of great assistance to
me. My name
is Dr.Ibrahim shorowa, from Ouagadougou Republic of BURKINA FASO ,
West Africa .
Presently I work in the African development Bank as telex manager. I have been
searching for your contact since you left our country some years ago.

I do not know whether this is your correct email address or not because I only
used your name initials to search for your contact .In case you are not the
person I am supposed to contact, please see this as a confidential message and
do not reveal it to another person but if you are not the intended
receiver, do
let me know whether you can be of assistance regarding my proposal
below because
it is top secret.

I am about to retire from active Bank service to start a new life but I am
sceptical to reveal this particular secret to a stranger. You must assure me
that everything will be handled confidentially because we are not going to
suffer again in life.

It has been 10 years now that most of the greedy African Politicians used our
bank to launder money overseas through the help of their Political advisers.
Most of the funds which they transferred out of the shores of Africa were gold
and oil money that was supposed to have been used to develop the continent.
Their Political advisers always inflated the amounts before transfer
to foreign
accounts so I also used the opportunity to divert part of the funds hence I am
aware that there is no official trace of how much was transferred as all the
accounts used for such transfers were being closed after
transfer.

I acted as the Bank Officer to most of the politicians and when I discovered
that they were using me to succeed in their greedy act; I also cleaned some of
their banking records from the Bank files and no one cared to ask me
because the
money was too much for them to control. They laundered over $5b Dollars during
the process .As I am sending this message to you, I was able to divert thirty
five million united state dollars ($35m) to an escrow account belonging to no
one in the bank. The bank is anxious now to know who the beneficiary to the
funds is because they have made a lot of profits with the
funds.

It is more than Eight years now and most of the politicians are no
longer using
our bank to transfer funds overseas. The ($35) Million Dollars has been LAYING
waste but I don't want to retire from the bank without transferring
the funds to
a foreign account to enable me share the proceeds with the receiver. The money
will be shared 60% for me and 40% for you..

There is no one coming to ask you about the funds because I secured
everything.
I only want you to assist me by providing a bank account where the
funds can be
transferred. You are not to face any difficulties or legal
implications as I am
going to handle the transfer personally. If you are capable of receiving the
funds, do let me know immediately to enable me give you DETAILED
information on
what to do.

For me, I have not stolen the money from anyone because the other people that
took the whole money did not face any problems. This is my chance also to grab
my own but you must keep the details of the funds secret to avoid any leakages
as no one in the bank knows about the funds.

Please get back to me if you are interested and capable to handle this project

I shall intimate you on what to do when I hear from your confirmation and
acceptance. If you are capable of being my trusted associate, do declare your
consent to me.

Waiting for your urgent response.
Yours Faithfully,

Dr.ibrahim shorowa

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