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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: "Mr. Marais" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <hendrickmarais@accountant.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Aug 2011 03:08:57 -0700
Subject: Business proposal from Malaysia

From. Mr. Marais:
Tel: +601116364751

Dear friend,
It's my pleasure having you contacted today, I'm Hendrick Marais the branch manager of one of international Banks in Malaysia, Am 52 years old married with two kids. And I want to trust you with amount of US$3million which is presently available for our benefit.

I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit both of us. As branch manger of our bank, it's my duty to send auditing report to our bank head office in the capital city Kuala Lumpur at the end of each business year. On the course of last year (2010) business report. I discovered that my branch in which am the manager made Three million united state dollars (US$3,000,000.00) which our bank head office does not aware of. Further my private investigation I discover that this money is part of unclaimed deposited funds in our bank by a late foreign investor before his death in 2008 without any beneficiary information and also no trace of his family nor relatives as a foreigner.

But as an officer in our bank I can not be directly have access to this fund. So my aim of contacting you is to seek for your partnership to team up with me and receive this money with your bank account and get 40% of the total fund as commission for your partnership.

Lastly, the transfer will be bank to bank transfer without any problem because every necessity has been done to ensure safe and successful transfer of the fund to your bank account, all I need from you is to stand claim as the beneficiary of fund to enable our bank head office release the fund to your bank account. Don't hesitate to call me on +601116364751 for voice conversation.

Waiting for your urgent response to enable me furnish further details.

Regards,
Mr. Marais.
Tel: +601116364751
Email: hendrickmarais@accountant.com

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