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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: "Mary Lasma" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <marylasma@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2022 07:29:37 -0700
Subject: YOUR PAYMENT UPDATE

Dear Friend,

The Federal government of Nigeria published in the official gazette last time, mandating the African Development bank in collaboration with the World Bank Regulatory Authority to offset all debts emanating from contracts executed by foreign contractors and files of next-of-kins submitted for payments.

Some Next-of-kin/contractors funds were attempted to be diverted by some individuals. Other cases are imposition of illegal charges on next-of-kin/contractors, invitation to overseas for claims of funds without success, incessant payment of fees one after another endlessly, impersonation and other corrupt practices that pose to dissatisfy beneficiaries thereby causing confusion among them, subjectivity to bankruptcy and total mislead.

Some beneficiaries are in the nets of impostors unknowingly and act on their instructions to forward any message to them received by beneficiaries, using it as a weapon against beneficiaries and awareness of payment procedure we embark on, and then plan more to win the hearts for their own selfish desires. It is a pity! I am a British Citizen and was posted here from the African Development bank through the World Bank to quietly pay the affected beneficiaries but what I have discovered here so far is a bad omen.

I have discovered that you are one of the victims of this circumstance because the settlement of your due fund through the right link is not supposed to exceed 10 bank working days but has taken months and years,Yet you have not questioned the integrity of those you were dealing with. This message is to exonerate you from total mess and pay you your due fund and interest through the AFDB without you undergoing payment of fees one after the other. Fraudulent activities by some government officials and their cohorts in Nigeria and some African countries are like terrorists these days. They send unauthenticated documents to beneficiaries and emails to deceive extort and cover the right link of easy receipts of funds against bonafide beneficiaries.

INFORMATION: Any genuine document from authorized office must bear government code number. These include Payment Approval and Remittance advice. We need your bank details and address for this quiet payment exercise but not through any Nigerian bank because they are criminals. Conclusively, any well thinking Next-of-kin/ Contractor should know that payments demand one after another is not the procedure but an omen to such government. You may say this looks like one of those old stories but i will advise you not to ignore it.

Yours Sincerely,

Mrs Mary Lasma
Corporate Finance Associate
African Development Bank

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