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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: "peter cummings" <continental_1@iwon.com>
Reply-To: feedback2peter@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Sun, 27 May 2007 19:52:10 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Hello....




Bank Of ScotlandPO Box No.5 The Mound Edinburgh EH1 1YZGreetings,I am Mr.Peter Cummings of the above mentioned bank in Scotland.I'm a chartered accountant by training and the auditor general,Bank Of Scotland,there is an account opened in this bank in 1985 and the owner of the said account was late Mr.Andrean schranner, a German,who died in July 2000 in a plane crash with his entire family,without relatives nor next of kin to stand as a claim/beneficiary to this man's fund,and the amount involve is (USD$ 45.000. 000.00) fourty five million US dollars. For more information about the crash visit this site http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm)No other person/persons know about this account or any thing concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and myinvestigation proved to me as well that his company does not know anything about this account . I am only contacting you as a foreigner because this money cannot be approved to a local account here, but can
only be approved to any foreign account because the money is in US dollars (foreign currency) and the original owner of the account, Mr.Andrean schranner,was a foreigner .I am contacting you because of the need to involve a foreign beneficiary,I want you to stand as the beneficiary of this fund,I will use my position and influence to effect legal approvals and onward transfer of this money into your account with appropriate clearance forms of the ministries and foreign exchange departments.I will tell you the next step to follow as soon as I hear from you.Yours Sincerely,Mr.Peter Cummings+447031910685

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