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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:

Fraud email example:

From: "Tony Brown" <tonybrown92@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 01 Oct 2005 10:53:07 -0500
Subject: Re:Hello.

FROM: MR. TONY BROWN
AUDITING AND ACCOUNT UNIT,
FORIEGN REMITTANCE DEPT,
NATWEST BANK, LONDON.
EMAIL:
tonybrown919@yahoo.co.uk


Attention Please,

I am MR. TONY BROWN. the director in charge of auditing and account
section of NATWEST BANK OF LONDON, with due respect and regard, I am
writing following an oppurtunity in my office that will be of imense
benefit to both of us.

During our investigation and auditing in this bank In my department we
discovered an abandoned sum of 6.5million British Pounds
Sterling (six million five hundred thousand British Pounds) in an account
that belongs to one of our foreign customers Late Mr. Morris Thompson who
unfortunately lost his life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight
261 which crashed on January 31 2000, including his wife and only
daughter. You shall read more about the crash on visiting this website.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/ and
http://www.nativefederation.org/history/people/mThompson.html

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting
his next of kin or relatves to come over and claim his money
because the Bank cannot release the funds unless somebody applies
for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in
our banking guidelines.

Unfortunately I learnt that his supposed next of kin being his only
daughter died along with him in the plane crash leaving nobody with the
knowledge of this fund behind for the claim. It is therefore
upon this discovery that I and two other officials in this
department now decided to do business with you and release the
money to you as the next of kin or beneficiary of the funds for
safety keeping and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming
for it and we don't want this money to go back into Government
treasury as unclaimed bill.

Note:my proposal is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand-in as the
next of kin to Late Mr. Morris Thompson and remember that this fund can
only be claimed by the help of a foreigner that is the main reason i am
contacting you.

We have been able to move the funds out
of the bank to a finance and security company here in London.
We agreed that 30% of this money will be for you as foreign
partner, while the balance will be for me and my colleagues. I
will visit your country for the disbursement according to the
percentages indicated above once this money gets into your account. Please
be honest to me and trust is our watchword in this
transaction.

Note this transaction is confidential and risk free. As soon as you
receive this mail you should contact me by return mail whether or
not you are willing to enter into this deal. In the event you are
not interested, I sincerely ask that you disregard this email and
tell no one about it. I am very careful on truncating my banking
career should you mention this to someone else. I hope you can be
trusted in this regard.

Please note that all necessary arrangement for the smooth release
of these funds to you has been finalised. We will discuss much in
details when I do receive your response.Please in your response include
the following:

1) Your Telephone and fax number for a better communication between us. If
you are interested, please reply immediately via my private email address
(
tonybrown919@yahoo.co.uk)  for more information.


God bless you.

Thanks and regards,

Tony Brown.

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