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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: "Williams" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <williamsbr@yahoo.cn>
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 2010 17:41:06 -0700
Subject: Bank Project

I am a staff of Barclays Bank London. I am writing on behalf of my client following an Opportunity in my office that will be of immense benefit to my client and us. My client was a top government official in another country, who banked with us in the UK. I was his personal
Banker, who kept all this accounts and monitored all his investment for him here in the UK,
My client's bank account with us has been frozen due to some diminutive investigation on my client. My client is a very rich man, worth over $4 billion US Dollars. A lot of these funds are frozen in different accounts due to the reason I gave above, and we need to transfer some funds to an unnamed account only I and my client know about, into your account. The above fund is not connected with arms, drugs or money laundering.
Now! All we need from you is to let us know if you are interested before we give you more information.
The amount in question is very large so you alone cannot receive this cash. I intend to use 4-5 people to conclude this transfer and the process shouldn't take more than 5 days. For transparency I will fully outline the sharing pattern, we have agreed to give you a
Non-negotiable 10%, of the total money transferred and believe me, it is a lot of cash.
I guarantee you that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. Please get in touch with me urgently by this private E-mail:
(williamsb@yahoo.cn)
Note: this transaction is confidential and risk free. Please note that all necessary arrangement for the smooth transfer of these funds to you has been finalized. We will discuss much in details when I receive your response.

Best regards
Mr. Brian Williams

Anti-fraud resources: