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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: "Matheus Gustavo" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <matheusgustavo@engineer.com>
Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2018 13:15:34 -0700
Subject: Utterly CONFIDENTIAL

Good Day

I am Matheus Gustavo The Director Account Services Operations Unit in my BANK, l Am contacting you for an urgent beneficial transaction, I have the opportunity of transferring Nine Million Three Hundred Thousand United States Dollars( $9.3m) from an account that belong to one of our late customer from the United States of America who died long ago in heart-related disease.

I want to inquire from you if you can handle this transaction for mutual benefits life opportunity for you and me. The Fund is currently in a suspense account awaiting claim, the bank made a public notice that they are ready to release this fund to any of his relatives abroad.

Therefore, by virtue of its nature as being utterly CONFIDENTIAL, top-secret should be maintained please, because I am still in the active service I do not need any form of implication especially now I am in the verge of my retirement to endanger my career at last!.

Since we got the information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines and laws. In that regard, I decided to seek your consent for this prospective opportunity. Have it at the back of your mind, that the transaction does not involve any RISK, and does not need much engagement from you since I am familiar with this kind of transaction being an insider.

Necessary modalities will be worked out to enable us to carry out the fund claim under a legitimate arrangement. I have resolved to offer you 40% of the total fund if only you will understand and follow up my instruction because it will only require a foreign Account to transfer the fund, 10% for sundry expenses that may be incurred during the process of executing this transaction and 50% percent for me.

I will give you more details about the transaction when I receive your affirmative response; I wait to hear from you URGENTLY

Thanks, yours sincerely,
Matheus Gustavo

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