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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: "Miguel Antonio Perez" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <miguelantonioperez001@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2017 23:39:31 +0200
Subject: Good Day Partner

I am Miguel Antonio Perez, the manager bills and exchange at the foreign remittance department of a bank here in Spain. I have a business proposal which i believe that will be a very good opportunity for both of us so I decided to contact you on this business opportunity in our bank. The proposal is that i discovered an abandoned sum of 57.5m US dollars (Fifty Seven Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) in our safety deposit vault that belongs to one of our foreign Customer, who died along with his entire family on 11th March 2004 in a ghastly train explosion in Atocha, Madrid-Spain. Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because the management cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines, unfortunately I learnt that all his Family died alongside with him in the train explosion leaving nobody behind for the claim.
I want us to do this transaction together since I have the entire secret information's of this deposit which will help you to claim this money as the next of kin. Though, I acknowledge you may not be anyway related to my late client, but taking into account that you both have a common surname is a positive factor as it can be considered a common genealogy. I can guarantee that we stand a great chance of success if you follow my instructions and directives. It is therefore upon this discovery that I decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin to the deceased since nobody is coming for it and I don't want this money to go into the banks treasury as unclaimed funds or declared to the Government of Spain, once this is done the Government of Spain will confiscate the funds, which is not good for both of us. I agreed that 40 % of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, in respect to your acceptance to do this business with me, while 60% would be for me and
Therefore to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to your account as arranged, you must apply first to the bank as the next of kin of the deceased indicating your interest of claim of your inherited funds, upon receipt of your reply through my e-mail, I will send to you by fax or e-mail the text of the application which you will send to the bank. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this transaction is a hitch free that you should not entertain any atom of fear as all required arrangements have been made perfectly.
At this moment you should feel free to contact me through my e-mail as soon as you receive this mail. You should understand that this should be kept very confidential, let it be between both of us only. This is the only way we can achieve success. I will level the whole arrangement here in the bank for the transfer to be approved immediately as soon as you get back to me.

Thanks and God Bless.

Best regards,
Miguel Antonio Perez

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