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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: "Robert Bryant" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <robertbryant@bog-post.net>
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 2017 10:39:40 -0400
Subject: PRIVATE INVESTMENT

Dear Sir/Madam.
 
I am Robert Bryant, I am a wealth manager from BLUE DIAMOND INVESTMENT INC. I am contacting you because I believe that we can form a very lucrative business partnership. One of our clients is interested in investing in your country. The total amount of funds available for investments is One Hundred Million US Dollars.
 
As I am contacting you now, I have also contacted another 12 different companies with regards to this proposal and will eventually be dealing with the most suitable and capable individual to handle this type of transaction. Due to my clients political position, he wants this to be carried out carefully and very discretely. This means all the information we transmit during this transaction must be kept strictly confidential.
 
To fully evaluate your capability to handle this transaction, I will proceed to ask you the following questions.
 
1.        Are you familiar with handling large volume of funds before in the past? This does not necessarily have to be as much as the amount described above.
 
2.        Do you have a bank account that can accommodate these funds without raising any eyebrow?
 
3.        Do you have any project (s) that requires funding? This may be an existing project or a future project. If you do, (Please give a short summary of the projects).
 
We will be asking for a more detailed executive summary if we eventually decide to work with you. This decision will be based on your answers.
 
Please do not be offended by these questions as we are not trying to undermine you in any way but due to the amount of funds involved, we just need to know if you are going to be able to handle this transaction.
 
If you are interested, please reply to this email. You should indicate your full name and contact telephone number so that I can get back to you with more details.
 
This message is for the attention of the CEO of this company only. I hope to hear back from you and looking forward to a successful, positive and mutually beneficial relationship with you.
Please reply on my private email:  robertbryant@bog-post.net
Regards,
Robert Bryant.

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