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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: "Mr. Li Xiaojing" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <lix02@skymail.mn>
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2011 01:15:59 -0700
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL / URGENT RESPONSE!!!

Mr. Li Xiaojing
General Manager
The Bank of China - New York Branch
410 Madison Ave, New York, NY10017-1174
United States
 
Dear Friend,
I am Mr. Li Xiaojing, general manager of Bank of China's New York branch, United States of America. I am sorry to have reached you through this medium knowing fully well that we have not met before inspite of friends that I have known for years, the singular reason is that I have by the very nature of this proposition and the required confidentiality decided to deal with someone I have not known before so that we can develop the trust and execute this transaction without a third party knowing.
 
Please note that this message is un-official and personal and as such should be kept highly confidential, so I plead with you to keep it as such. I am contacting you base on a recent meeting held by the management of my bank which an account of Late Robert Theodore Ammon (Deceased) who was murdered by his wife and her boyfriend lover in October 2001 in his East Hampton home here in United States. His account was recently declared dormant and should be confiscated and the fund sent to the bank treasury.
 
Late Robert Theodore Ammon was an account holder in my bank and I was his account officer. He has a secret Dollar account worth the sum of $58,200,000.00 (Fifty Eight Million, Two Hundred Thousand United States Dollars).  Since his death, the management of my bank has made series of efforts to locate any of his family members but all efforts were unsuccessful. Late Robert Theodore Ammon had no beneficiary to this account, he was divorced years back and until death, his wife and kid’s whereabouts are unknown to anyone. This is what has really made me sad because if the children’s whereabouts are known to me they would have easily claimed the fund long ago and my bank would not have made this decision of confiscating the fund. This is why I am contacting and where I want you to come in.
My bank in a short while would declare the account dormant, confiscated and the fund would be sent to the bank treasury which means the fund would be taken by the bank but I will not let such happen because this fund was kept under my care as the account officer to the late depositor. I will never forgive myself if I allow the bank confiscate this fund because he told me before he died that incase he dies, I should do everything in my power to secure this fund and locate his family members which is why I contacted you for this and after we have successfully claimed this fund, I will give you 20% of the total amount while 30 % comes to me and the balance 50% would be kept until we locate the family of the late deceased.
I want you to come in as the Next of Kin/Beneficiary to this account.  I have all the titled documents to back your claim and as the President & Chief Executive Officer of this branch, it is in my power to carry out any form of verification on the beneficiary of the said account, process the fund and wire without any problem.
 
I want you to know that this is legal and 100% risk free as all the titled documents would be changed to your name and the fund wired to your nominated bank account. 
 
Kindly note that my work and position would be at risk should anything go wrong so I need you to think about this and get back to me and I will give you further details on how this can be handled successfully and without any problem. I am also using this medium to inform you that this is very simple and fast and I would be the one to handle everything and all I would need from you is absolute trust and confidentiality. Also note that this transaction is un-official and private, so do not write to my official email address which you may find in my bank website, rather you should contact me through my personal email address.
 
Kindly respond as soon as possible so I can give you further details on how we can carry out this process.
 
Yours Truly,
Mr. Li Xiaojing

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