419 scam: I urge you to consider

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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:

This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dormant account" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
This email message is a next of kin scam.

Fraud email example:

From:
Reply-To: <chris.norman@consultant.com>
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 21:27:07 +0000
Subject: I urge you to consider

Good day,
I personally discovered a dormant account with a total sum of ?12,650,000.00 [Twelve Million, Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Euros] belonging to my late client "John Shumejda" during the financial company annual account auditing.
The owner of this dormant account is a foreigner "John Shumejda" by name who died on January 5, 2002, in a plane crash in Birmingham; Please view the news of of his death on this CNN webpage,
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/01/04/england.plane/
since the death of the deceased, nobody has operated this account till date.
Moreover, this account has no BENEFICIARY attached to it.
Definitely, the FINANCE COMPANY CODE OF ETHICS will be liable to confiscate this fund if it remains dormant for a period of [13] years without any claims. This year will make it the 13th year.
In this regard, I earnestly seek your full cooperation in transferring this dormant funds out from the Finance Company where the total valued sum of ?12,650,000.00 Euros is being deposited, to avoid confiscating this fund. I will remit 40% of this funds to you for your co-operation. If you are willing to work with me I would like you to get back to me for further directives.
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Anti-fraud resources:

What can you do when you receive 419 spam