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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: "James Morris Esq." <jc.co.ltd7890@gmail.com>
Reply-To: jmo236177@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 2021 20:27:40 -0700
Subject: Business Proposal

--
Dear

I am sorry for the embarrassment this mail might cause you, as we have not
met before. I am Barrister James Morris, a solicitor at law; I was the
personal attorney German Foreigner by name Adolf Merckle aged 74 years old,
who committed suicide on January 5th 2009 after his business empire ran
into trouble in the global economic financial crisis. Please refer to the
news website below to read more about our late client.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7814257.stm

Since then nobody has done anything as regards to the claiming of this
money as he has no family member here in South that is aware of the
existence of either the account or the fund. Several attempt to trace any
of his relative proof abortive and also Information from the National
Immigration office states that late Adolf Merckle was alone on point of
entry into USA. I came across your name and contact while in search of my
client relations and decided to ask for your assistance for the realization
of this project. Before his demise, my client had lodged the sum of
US$28,500,000.00 (Twenty Eight Million, Five Hundred Thousand United State
Dollars Only) with a bank here in USA, with the hope of transferring the
money to his account overseas in bits.

After his death nobody has come forward to claim the money as his next of
kin, the Bank last year gave me 12 months’ notice to provide his Next of
Kin or have the money confiscated; this ultimatum will expire in a few
months’ time. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for
over three years now, I seek your consent to present you as the Next of Kin
of my deceased Client so that the ownership of this $USD28.5 Million
Dollars can be transferred to you to enable you and I share it on the
following percentage of 50% for me and 45% for you, and the remaining 5%
will be used for expenses and tax.

I will also procure all necessary legal documents that can be used to back
up any claim we may make. All I require is your honest co-operation to
enable us see this business through. I guarantee that this will be executed
under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the
law.

Sincerely yours,

James Morris Esq.

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