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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: "AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mikiwilliams@knol-power.nl>
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2017 04:15:19 +0530
Subject: HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO RECEIVE YOUR FUNDS?#####

AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK
Risk & Compliance Officer
Mr. Miki Williams
01 BP 1387 Abidjan 01, Côte d'Ivoire
Phone: +225 2026 3912, Email: mikiwilliams@knol-power.nl

I’m Mr. Miki Williams a Special investigator by profession and the compliance & Risk officer with the Africa development bank, based on the nature of my department I work hand in hand with several financial institutes and also financial Fraud Unit of the Criminal Investigation Division (CID). I specialize in Background Investigations on funds and I notice that you have being receiving numerous emails from people who claims to have funds coming to you but I advise that if you’re still in communication with any of them on issues of funds however, you’re hereby advise to stop every communication right now because those people has being investigated and confirmed to be a Fraud.

I wish to announce our successful investigation which I believe will bring joy to your family however; I guess it will interest you to know why this investigation was conducted. For your information, it was truly confirmed that you have 100% Legitimate unpaid transaction and you have every right to claim this funds as you have been verified to be the right Beneficiary of the said amount $10.8M, however Due to the delay of getting this funds to you, your funds has Accumulated an accrued interest of US$2.8M over the years because of its unpaid status.

It must interest you that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations oversight office have instructed that this accrued interest amount of US$2.8M be released to you without any further delay. Right now, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has confirmed this funds to be 100 % legitimate after all investigation which was carried out to make sure that this funds get directly to you the beneficiary, however, I’m informing you this today because I came to notice that you’re not communicating with a legitimate person who is in charge of getting these funds to you.

This announcement has to be made open to you however because you may have being swindled by those unscrupulous people whom you have sent money in the course of getting this funds, it is very important you reconfirm your details such as, 1, Your Full names, 2, Your Direct Phone Numbers, 3, Your Full Address, 4, A copy of your identification to enable me pass my recommendation to the right authority to start immediate process for the payment of your accused interest of US$2.8M.

Regard
Mr. Miki Williams
Risk & Compliance Office

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