419 scam: "MR.ERIK MALCOLM" <erik.malcolm@yahoo.com> DEAR FRIEND,

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
This email message is a next of kin scam.

Fraud email example:

From: "MR.ERIK MALCOLM" <erik.malcolm@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: fan_erik@live.com
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 16:54:06 +0100
Subject: DEAR FRIEND,

From Mr. Erik Malcolm

I work with a Corporate Financial Service Provider in Europe. I had a customer
John Shumejda who deposited sum of $15,000.000.00 and eventually died
in an air
crash on Friday, 4 January, 2002 in England without any reference to a next of
kin.

(View website) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/1742404.stm

In accordance with the UK Trust and Federal Laws, at the expiration of
8 (eight)
years, his investments with our Financial Trust shall revert to
ownership of the
government of the country of the said investments if nobody applies as
the next
of kin to claim the investments. I want to present you to stand in as the next
of kin so that we can benefit from this investment equally. I guarantee that
this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement. Let me know your
level of
interest for discussion of this deal in further details.

With friendly greetings,
Erik Malcolm

Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam