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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: frank powell <frank_powell0001@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <frankpowell002@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 2007 16:01:17 +0100
Subject: I NEED RESPONSE,Swissair crashed into the Atlantic off Nova Scotia.


FROM THE DESK OF MR FRANK POWELL,
PRIME TRUST BOND,LONDON.
UNITED KINGDOM.


Dear Friend,

I am Mr Frank Powell, The Auditor General of Prime Trust Bond London. We receive and attend to foreign dignatories on fund management to invest in a unique blend of profitable business venture.
There is this immigrant (Mr Michael Gambone) who was a gasconsultant here in UK, who happens to be one of our very good clients.He died with his wife(Mrs Deborah Gambone)on board the Swissair Flight111 , which crashed into the Atlantic off Nova Scotia in september 2nd 1998.

The news of this crash was on the news which we have notified his relatives to no avail.See links below for more detail information:
http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/WORLD/9809/swissair.victims.list/
http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/WORLD/americas/9809/08/swissair.02/
Before his death, he was having a closing balance of $3.5Million(Threem million five hundred thousand dollars only) in his account.
All attempts to trace his next of kin were fruitless.I feel to present you as the benefactor and heir apprent to the deposited fund and I have to contact you.
According to the British Law,the money will be revert to the ownership of the British government if nobody applies to claim the fund. To avoid this money being sent to the British treasury as unclaimed funds,I have decided to contact you so that the said fund would be released in your name as the next of kin and paid into your account.

I will want you to send to me on your return email the following information.
1, Your full Name,
2, Your contact Address,
3, Your private Mobile phone,
4, Your age and profession.
All information and documents to facilitates this claim will be giving to you.On conclusion of the transaction,we shall decide on how much should be given to me.
Your Faithfully,

Mr Frank Powell.
AUDITOR PRIME TRUST BOND COMPANY LONDON.

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