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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. BRUNO FERNANDEZ." <okings17@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: mr.brunofernandez@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Fri, 23 Nov 2012 11:10:59 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: RE




The Regional Manager, 
Standard Chartered Bank of Ghana, Tamale Branch.
Dear Madam,  
I got your contact from a search in the internet, and I decided to contact you for assistance. My name is Mr. Bruno Fernandez, I am the regional manager of Standard Chartered Bank of Ghana Tamale Branch; I am happily married with four lovely kids. I have been a banker for almost 10 years. 
I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit you and me, as the regional manager of my branch; it is my duty to send in a financial report to my head office in the capital city Accra at the end of each business year. On the course of the last year 2010 business report, I discovered that my branch in which I am the manager made the sum of One million, four hundred Thousand united state dollars ($1,400,000.00) USD.  
I have placed this funds on what we call escrow call account, this account is strictly for onward transfer, with no beneficiary. As an officer of this bank I cannot be directly connected to this money in any way, so my aim of contacting you is to assist me receive this money in your bank account abroad and get 40% of the total funds as commission, while 60 percent comes back to me. I placed you on 40% because I believe this business now belongs to both of us, and your efforts and support is highly needed. 
Up till date, no one has the knowledge of the $1,400,000.00USD you are about to receive in your bank account, and no one will ever know of it. All you need to do is to stand claim as the original depositor and beneficiary of the fund in my branch so that my head office can order the transfer of the fund to your designated bank account. There are practically no risks involved, it will be a bank-to-bank transfer. 
I will send you an application letter which you have to rewrite and send back to them, applying and instructing them to close your Escrow call Account and transfer your funds to your designated bank account abroad. 
From the day you applied, within 6 days the money should have been transferred and cleared in your account as they would call me for confirmation. Then I will get back my 60% through any means we find best. 
Please note that all I need from you is your trust and sincerity as to seeing this through. I am expecting your soonest reply as to enable us start doing something about it immediately. 
Kindly get back to me, 
Mr. BRUNO FERNANDEZ. 

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