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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: "majanen" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <esqjimmajanen@yandex.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Nov 2016 15:39:23 +0100
Subject: VL: Your urgent respons for us to proceed

Dear Sir/Madam,
I am compelled to write you this email for reasons of great business importance. I Agent/Solicitor of JM Associate and personal attorney to Late Mark, who left some large amount of money with DIAMOND BANK here before his death in 2004, in an auto crash. And as his personal attorney, I have made several inquiries as directed by the bank with a view to locating any member of his immediate or extended relatives so as to present him/her as the Next of Kin and beneficiary of my late client and of course claim his entitlement. And unfortunately, I have been unsuccessfully in all my efforts at trying to locate any member of his family. For this reason, i have decided to trace his last name, hence I contacted you so that the process of claim of the fund deposited by my late client can be handed over to you, I got your contact from an International Journal during my search for this above mentioned issues.
Please note that the fund shall be divided 50/50 between you and I, once it gets into your account according to my plan,Your earliest response to this email will be highly appreciated, Do get back to me as I will not contact anybody till l read from you and if you are not interested do let me know by replying back to me.
Regards
Jim Majanen

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