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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: "from me" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <shuxiangy_02@yahoo.cn>
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:58:26 +0800
Subject: =let us do this business=

I am contacting you concerning a deceased customer Mr. Irshad Ahmad, a Pakistani arms dealer in
Afghanistan who placed huge investment under our banks management.

He invested 27.4 million United States dollars in an investment banking portfolio of my bank
(Shanghai Pudong Development Bank) in March 2003. By the end of March, 2008, the fund was worth
31,500,000 million United States dollars at 0.35% fixed interest rate and profit from investment portfolios
based on professional advice for low market risk investments. Since this time, the bank has sent several
notices to Mr. Irshad Ahmad as customer follow up and possible investment update since he is a high profile
customer with no response. It was after thorough investigation that I got information that Irshad Ahmad and
his family had been killed during one of NATO onslaughts in Afghanistan.

Due to the sensitive nature of Ahmad business, he never wanted to live any traces to his private account and
did not nominate any next of kin to his investments and funds and also left his WILL in our care.
Mr. Irshad Ahmad died with no known relative to claim his funds and investments. This means that his fund will
be claimed by the bank and subsequently by the Chinese government if no one come to claim it.
Now, there is a total sum of 31,500,000 million United States dollars unclaimed fund in my bank that I want you
to stand as the next of kin for; and have planned out a water tight safe system for you to claim and provide you
with all necessary information for easy transfer of the fund to you without any hitch. On completion of this project,
your share will be 40% of the 31,500,000 million United States dollars. I count on your maturity and confidence
not to betray me because I am a family man and have a reputable career to protect.
I await your response.

Regards,

Shuxiang Yang

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