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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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.

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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "hundred thousand united states dollars" (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)
  • "contact me immediately" (they are rushing you so you don't have time to think properly)
  • "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
• This email message is a next of kin scam.

Fraud email example:

From: "Kate Alingham" <kate_mb5@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: kateprivate2@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 23:04:34 +0000
Subject: John D. Frescas

AUDIT AND ACCOUNTS UNIT
MIDLAND BANK PLC
LONDON, ENGLAND.

Good day,

I am Mrs. Kate Alingham, a staff of bills and
exchange at the Foreign Remittance Department of
Midland Bank Plc London now part of the HSBC. In my
department, I discovered the sum of (US$8.5M) Eight
Million, Five hundred thousand United States Dollars
only, in an account that belongs to late John Donald
Frescas, who died in a ghastly car accident here
in 2004. Since we got information about his death, the
bank has been expecting any of his possible relatives
to come over and claim his money because we cannot
release it unless somebody applies for it as indicated
in our banking guidelines.
Unfortunately I personally learnt that he did not
mention any beneficiary to his estate before his
sudden death. It is therefore upon this discovery that
I and the attorney to the deceased now decided to
contact you, and having the same last name with him,
it makes it easier for the inheritance to be released
to you as the next of kin or relation to the decease
since nobody is fronting for the money and we do not
want the estate to go into disbursement account as
unclaimed bill.
The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if
such money remained unclaimed after three (3) years
the
money will be transferred into the government account
as unclaimed fund.
Therefore to enable immediate release of the
inheritance to you as arranged, you should contact me
immediately via email for further directives on how to
proceed.
We shall negotiate on the percentage split of the
funds as we proceed.

I look forward to your immediate reply.

Sincerely,

Kate Alingham.

N/B: I know that this email will come to you as a
surprise, considering the fact that it is unsolicited.
I quite understand your concern and I want to assure
you that this is a 100% legitimate and risk free
transaction and no personal information is required
from you.

_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam