419 scam: "Capt.Steve Brown"<romursam@aol.com> Urgent Reply

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear friend" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
- "huge amount of money" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- "is 100% risk free" (almost true for the criminal trying to scam you - arrests of online criminals are rare)
This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.

Fraud email example:

From: "Capt.Steve Brown" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <stevebrown20111@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:43:38 -0700
Subject: Urgent Reply

Dear Friend,

My name is Capt.Steve Brown, a Captain in the Army now on a tour of duty in Northern Iraq. During one of our duty assignment, we stumbled on an Al-Qaeda dump site where was stacked many arms and also cashdollars to the amount of over $50 Million. We only declared the arms and kept quiet concerning the money. The money was shared among us and I being the Platoon commander got $10.7 Million. I was able to move this money out of Iraq through a Non Governmental Organization.

Presently the money is lodged with a Safe Keeping company. My tour is not finished and because of my status I am not eligible to possess such a huge amount of money. So I am seeking a trust worthy person who will stand as the beneficiary of this fund on my behalf and move the money to your country and hold it on trust for me until I am back from my national service.

You will be entitled to 40% of the total sum for your assistance.Please bear in mind that this transaction is 100% risk free and also highly confidential so you need to keep it to yourself alone for security reasons because of the huge amount involve.

Please respond so as to send to you further details about this transaction.

Best Regards,

Capt.Steve Brown.

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam