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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: " William Morgan" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <william_morgan1@live.com>
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:37:04 +0200
Subject: PLEASE HELP MY FAMILY

FROM Mr. William Morgan
SOUTH AFRICA
phone:27835537507
Reply to:william_morgan1@live.com

Dear Sir/Madam,


I know you will be surprised to read from me, but please consider this letter as request from a family in dare need of your assistance. Firstly, I must introduce myself which you have known Mr. William Morgan from Zimbabwe, I am the first and the only son of Mr. Charles Morgan, I am presently residing in South Africa.
On behalf of my Mother who is a widow Mrs.Grace Morgan. I decided to solicit for your assistance to transfer the sum of US$18M (Eighteen Million United States Dollars) in your personal or company account.
Before my father's death he was among the few Black farmers in Zimbabwe who was poisoned by the agents of the ruling government of President Robert Mugabe for his alleged support and sympathy for Zimbabwe opposition party controlled by the White Zimbabweans. For more information,please view these sites.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1063785.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/2414713.stm

Before his death, he had taken me to South Africa to deposit this money in a Security and Finance Company. This money was deposited in a box as a gemstone to avoid much demurrage from the Security Company. It was also earmarked for the purchase of new machinery and chemicals for the farms and to establish new farms in Lesotho,Senegal and Liberia.
In his WILL he specially drew my attention to this sum of US$18Million (Eighteen Million United States Dollars) that he deposited in a safe box in a private Security and Finance Company here in South Africa.
>From the above, you will understand that the live and the future of my family depends on this money as much as I will be very grateful if you can assist us. We are now living in South Africa as Asylum seekers and the financial laws of South Africa does not allow Asylum seekers certain rights to such huge amount of money. In view of this, We cannot invest this money in South Africa: hence I am asking you to assist me to transfer this money out of South Africa for investment purposes. For your efforts,

I am prepared to offer you 25% of the total fund, while 5% will be set aside for local and international expenses and 70% will be kept by my family and me. I assure you that this business is 100% risk free because our lawyer will provide all the necessary documents to back it up.
Finally, modalities on how the transfer will be done will be conveyed to you once we establish trust and confidence between ourselves. Kindly get back to me on my private e-mail address .
william_morgan1@live.com

Best Regards

William Morgan

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