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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: "BARR MARTINS JOE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <martinsjoe326@sify.com>
Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2011 08:38:32 +0800
Subject: Barr Martins Joe

From: Martins Joe
No 12b Jalan Ipoh Taman Segar Puchong,
42300 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia.


Dear,

In as much as there has not being any correspondence between us, I will
appreciate it if you take to read this all important E-mail. On behalf of
the Trustees and Executor of the estate of my late client who later died
in Japan after suffering from myocardial infarction, as reported on
Thursday September 30,1999
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/461446.stm.
I am Martins Joe, a Malaysian attorney at law. My late client Mrs.
Anita () died leaving behind a large sum of money to the tune of Thirteen
Million Eight Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US13, 800, 000).
My reason for contacting you is because you have the same family/Last name
as my late client as I will need your assistance to secure the above
mentioned inheritance estate else the government will declare the funds
unserviceable and return the inheritance funds to federal government
reserved account . All attempts to find relative related to my late client
proved failure.
I have a mandate from the bank to present the next-of-kin to the deceased
or the funds will be confiscated that is why I was moved to take
initiative to contact you.
I want you to consider this proposal. If you grant me your consent then I
will present you to the bank as the next-of-kin and beneficiary of my
deceased client (since you have the same last name), so that the proceeds
of this account can be transferred to you, then we can share the entire
proceeds on a mutually agreed-upon percentage. All legal documents to back
up your claim as my deceased client's next-of-kin will be provided. All I
require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this transaction
through.
Should my proposal offend you or contradict your moral ethics, I
apologize. If it interested you and wish to help, do reply to me and we
can discuss our plan of action.

Regards,

Martins Joe martinsjoe326@sify.com

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