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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.Jones Jeffrey" <waltersh@mwt.net>
Reply-To: <jonesjeffreyallen@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2014 06:05:41 +0200
Subject: Re: Emergency assistance

Greetings,
 
I am. JEFFREY ALLEN JONES, Head Accounts Management Section of a well-known Bank here in South Africa  (NED CAPITAL BANK).One of our accounts with holding balance of US$9,800,000 (Nine Million, Eight Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) has been dormant and last Operated in the past eight (4) years. From investigations and confirmations, the owner of this account is a German Foreigner by name Adolf Merckle aged 74 years old,who committed suicide on January 5th 2009 after his business empire ran into trouble in the global economic financial crisis. Please refer to the news website below to read more about our late client.
 
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7814257.stm
 
Since then nobody has done anything as regards to the claiming of this money as he has no family member here in South Africa that is aware of the existence of either the account or the fund. Several attempt to trace any of his relative proof abortive and also Information from the National Immigration office states that late Adolf Merckle was alone on point of entry into South Africa .
 
Our Financial Institution is presently and by law the custodian of the money belonging to the deceased, whose account I am responsible for monitoring and officiating. The present mandate I have to present a credible beneficiary opens the way for us to take advantage of the situation and use the money to positively affect the lives of many instead of allowing the funds to be completely lost, since no one knows about the money and no one will come forward to claim the money as we already know.
 
I have confidentially discussed this issue with some of the bank officials and we have agreed to find a reliable foreign partner to deal with. We thus propose to do business with you, standing in as the next of kin of this fund from the deceased and fund released to you after due processes have been followed.
 
This transaction is totally free of risk and legal as the fund is Legitimate and does not originate from drug or money laundry. On your interest, please send to me
your contact Telephone number
 
Full names,
 
Age,
 
Occupation
 
and Residential address.
 
Sincerely,
Jeffrey Allen Jones.

Anti-fraud resources: