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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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Fraud email example:

From: "fedor stan" <fedorstan@hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 18 Sep 2005 13:38:04 +0000
Subject: Your Kindest Attention


Your Kindest Attention,

I am Mr. FEDOR STANSLOV, a personal secretary to Mikhail Khodorkovsky the
richest man in Russia and owner of the following companies: Chairman CEO:
YUKOS OIL (Russian Largest Oil Company) Chairman CEO: Menatep SBP Bank (A
well reputable financial institution with its
branches all over the world). I seek your partnership to accommodate the sum
US$14M (Fourteen Million United States Dollars) for us.

My Boss got arrested for his involvement on politics in financing the
leading and opposing political parties (the Union of Right Forces, led by
Boris Nemtsov, and Yabloko, a liberal/social democratic party led by Gregor
Yavlinsky) which posed treat to President Vladimir Putin second tenure as
Russian president before he was reelected On
March 14, 2004. You can catch more of the story on this
http://newsfromrussia.com/main/2003/11/13/51215.html

The fund (US$14M) in question was approved by the Government of Russia for
payment of various YUKOS OIL contractors/suppliers to prevent them from
loosing the money they invested in the numerous contracts they executed for
the above firm. The Government had already concluded plans to frozen all the
accounts in my boss name (Mikhail Khodorkovsky) both corporate and personal
before I connived with the Accountant General of YUKOS OIL (who is also my
partner in this transaction) to raise a memo stating that YUKOS OIL owe
contractors the above amount which was finally approved for payment after
some deliberations. Actually, we have paid all our contractors both local
and foreign because they agitated for their payment when they had that my
boss was arrested.

I will present you / your company as one of the contractors we are owing so
that you can stand as the beneficiary of the above quoted sum or PART of the
fund according to your financial strength or the strength of your company. I
will arrange for the documentation which the payee bank will need to
transfer the sum to you. I have decided to use this sum to relocate to
another country and never to be connected to any of Mikhail Khodorkovsky
conglomerates. The transaction has to be concluded before as soon as
possible. You will
be rewarded with 10% of the total sum for your partnership. Can you be my
partner on this?

As soon as I get your willingness to comply I will give you more details.
Thank you very much. Please send your reply to fedor4@terra.com.mx for
confidential reasons.

Regards,
FEDOR STANSLOV.


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