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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: "MAYBANK GROUP" <infoandy@maybank.com.my>
Reply-To: <mrandyliew@bbs.ctex.org>
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2011 23:24:19 +0200
Subject: RE: Your Attention

Dear Friend,

My name is Andy Liew, This the second time I am sending this email to you. I am the Auditing and Accounting Manager of Maybank, Malaysia. I write you this proposal in good faith, believing that I can trust you with the information I am about to reveal to you. I use to head the Accounts department in my banks head office, but last December I was asked to resume position as the branch Manager in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, so that was how I became the present Manager and discovered a fortune.

As I resumed duty, I discovered an account with total sum of RM 22,500,320.00 (TWENTY TWO MILLION, FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND, THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY MALAYSIA RINGGIT) which is equivalent to over $7,000,000.00 (SEVEN MILLION UNITED STATES DOLLARS). This account has not been operated on for the past 10 years now and has been idle.

From my investigation today, I have found out that this account belongs to one Late Mr Morris Thompson, an American great industrialist and a resident of Alaska, who unfortunately lost his life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January 31 2000, including his wife and only daughter. You shall read more news about the crash on visiting this site which I got during my investigation;
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list

This account is a dormant account in my bank here and no other person knows about this account or any thing concerning it, I have kept a close monitoring of the account, and since then nobody has come forward to ask about the money as next of kin to the late Morris Thompson for the past decade, meaning that no one is aware of the account.

Banking regulation legislation in Malaysia demand that I notify the fiscal authorities after a statutory time period of Eight years when dormant accounts of this type are called in by the monetary regulatory bodies. The above set of facts underscores my reason of writing. I am of the settled conviction that using my insider leverage, working with you, we can secure the funds in an account for us, instead of allowing it pass as unclaimed funds into the coffers of the Government of Malaysia. This exactly is why I crave your participation and cooperation.

I cannot directly take out this money without the help of a foreigner and that is why I am contacting you for an assistance to claim the funds and share it with me.
As the Manager of my banks branch, I have the power to influence the release of the funds to any foreigner that comes up as the next of kin to the account, with the correct information concerning the account, which I shall give you immediately I received your contact information, such as:
1) Your Name:......................................
2) Your Address:.................................
3) Your Phone Number:......................
4) Your Occupation and Age:..............

I am seeking your co-operation to present you as the next of kin to the account, so that my bank head quarters will release the funds to us. There is practically no risk involved, the transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law.

Kindly contact me immediately with your private telephone number so we can go over the details and Please do not expose this deal if you are not interested, because if you do, it will take me out of seat.
Personal Email: mrandyliew@bbs.ctex.org

And for your interest to do this business with me, kindly reply ASAP.

Regards,
Andy Liew

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