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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr. Mark Rowland" <sales@kalalist.com>
Reply-To: markrowland2016@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2017 15:30:57 +0200
Subject: REQUEST FOR A LEGITIMATE BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP.

From: Mr. Mark Rowland
First National Bank (FNB), South Africa
Tel: + 27 616 268 376(AH)
Email: markrowland2016@gmail.com

REQUEST FOR A LEGITIMATE BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP.

Good Day,

I am Mark Rowland, an investment consultant working with first National Bank of South Africa at their Audit department. I will be happy to work this transaction with you if you have a corporate or personal Bank Account and if you are capable to keep things to yourself. I need strong Assurance that you will never let me down, if I transfer this fund to your designated Account.

During one of our periodic auditing I discovered a dormant Account with holding balance of (US$10,500.000.00) {Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars Only}, Sometimes a person will open a bank Account, deposit money, and then disappear into thin air. Banks are not always able to find out what has become of these silent customers, or to know whether they should follow up on requests from people who claim to be heirs to the account.

The main problem is that the customer resides abroad and due to bank secrecy, the bank cannot publish notices in the international press to locate the depositaries. This has led the majority of Swiss banks to refrain from opening small-deposit accounts for foreign customers; for fear that they will forget that the account exists. It has happened in the past however, that customers pass away and their heirs can neither prove the death nor their heir ship.

This was a frequent occurrence during the wartime periods and the banks have now set up a simple rapid resolution procedure operating to their customer’s advantage. Dormant assets are defined as any assets deposited with a bank (i.e. an account, a custody account or a safety-deposit box) for which there has been no contact with the customer in the bank's files for the last ten years or more.

I am constrained to issue more details about this transaction until your response is received. If you know that you are capable to handle large or small amount on trust and can keep things to yourself and ready to take 30% of any amount I transfer to your account from the dormant account and I will take 70%, send me your account details by return mail. Tell me more about yourself, while I look forward to receive the above details.

I want to re-assure you that this transaction is risk free and you can send an empty account to receive the funds provided that the account is capable to receive incoming funds.

Looking forward to discuss this opportunity further with you in details. Please email me back on this email (markrowland2016@gmail.com) or provide me with your private phone number for more discussion of this transaction. You are to call before sending any email message for security reasons.
Thanks for your time and attention.

Regards,

Mr. Mark Rowland
First National Bank-South Africa
Tel: +27 616 268 376
Fax: +27 865 611 070
Email: markrowland2016@gmail.com

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