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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: Walter Brown <millipiyango3@gmail.com>
Reply-To: fwilliams@windowslive.com
Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 19:46:48 -0300
Subject: Greetings...



From: Walter Brown
Citizens Bank 65,Aldwych London
WC2B 4EJ United Kingdom

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a staff of Citizens Bank London. I am writing following an oppurtunity in
my office that will be of immense benefit to both of us. 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, a citzen of your country who Unfortunately,

he died with the family and also with the whole passengers aboard, in Plane
crash. CONCORDE PLANE CRASH[Flight AF4590 ] on the 25TH JULY,2000. You may read

more stories about the crash on visiting these websites:
ttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm .

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 we cannot release it
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 make 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.

The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such money remained after
five years the money will be transferred into banking treasury as unclaimed
funds.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.this transaction is confidential and risk free.if you are
ready to work with us please forward to me the required information below.

1. Your full name
2. Your office and resident address
3. Your direct telephone number
4. Your proof of identity
5. Amount you need for your business
6. Your Present Occupation
7. Age

Once you send me the requested information as above, I will initiate the
processing of the transfer and in about 5 working days the money will be in
your nominated bank account for us to share in the ratio.This transaction is
guaranteed to succeed without any problem. If you agree to assist me by sending

me the above requested information, I will give you my complete Details,
including phone/ fax etc and any further clarifications you may require. We
will discuss much in details when I do receive your response. You can also
reply to walterbrown@informaticos.com

Best regards,

Walter Brown

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