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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: Shedrach Johnson <s.johnson@bnp.com>
Reply-To: <sjohnson231@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 07:17:36 -0500
Subject: Vital Information

Hello,
I'm Shedrach Johnson of BNP Paribas Dublin.

I got your e-mail address through an internet
marketing firm while searching for a reliable and reputable
person to handle a transaction of this magnitude.

THE PROPOSITION:
Thirteen Million Euro was the initial capital of this
investment plus an agreed interest rate of 10% per annum
at maturity/renewal time (6 Years) after deduction of the
agreed Bank's commission of 2%.
Therefore, the total amount of this project is 20,800,000.00 euro.
These investment were initiated by one of our late foreign client;
Engr.Edwin Hogan.

As his accredited staff in the customer relation department,
I made several attempts to reach him to either withdrawn the
investment or specify an automatic renewal of either the initial
capital or both capital plus interest of the investment.
This was after the maturity period but all my efforts
to contact him were in vain as all the several emails sent to
him were returned undelivered while his telephone/fax lines
in our records were also out of services.

I only discovered recently during my christmas visit to Seoul in South
Korea that this client who was a Government contractor and an
expatriate in South Korea as at the time he initiated this
investment died along with his family in an auto crash without
making a WILL and that his Estate have long time ago be divided
in accordance with the Law of his land (Canadian law). This
indicates that no one is aware of his six years fiduciary deposit
with our Bank.

Be inform also that I contacted you due to the order of mandamus
from the court that gave me the legal power as his accredited
Customer Relation Official to locate the deceased beneficiay.


I am contacting you therefore, to stand in as the
beneficiary to process this fund into your account. As
soon as you consent to this, I will immediately furnish
you with more details and also prepare all
legal documents to revalidate all necessary documents in your
favor and also File an application for claims in your name
as this will give you the legal right to make claim for it.

Finally, I have to reassure you that this transaction
is 100% risk free and should be kept absolutely
confidential. Presently, you can reach me by return
mail via my private email: sjohnson231@gmail.com
for secured communication between us.

Also Note that we need to conclude this transaction
ASAP as our Bank have commence the legal procedure to
declare the funds as unclaimed investment and redirect
the same to the State's unclaimed property office as
mandated by law.

Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.
I await your response.


Best Regards
Mr. Shedrach Johnson

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