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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: GILBERT JONES <rev.sis.gloria.aza@gmail.com>
Reply-To: gilberto_jones1000@hotmail.com
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2023 03:10:28 -0700
Subject: Investment Offer

My name is Mr. Gilbert Jones and I am on the staff of a leading bank here
in Benin Republic, West Africa, attached to investment banking
Services, I am contacting you regarding a client and an investment placed
under the management of our bank; in fact, it was about 11 years ago. I
respectfully request that you keep the content of this email private and
also respect the integrity of the information you obtain as a result of
this email.

I have contacted you independently and no one is aware of this
communication; I would like to share with you some facts that I believe may
be of interest to you and beneficial to both of us. All I want is an honest
business transaction between us. First of all, I will start by introducing
myself. My full name is Mr. Gilbert Jones. I am a British/Beninese citizen
as I have a British mother and a Beninese father and am currently working
with Diamond Bank. I have worked here for 21 years now and have a good
working record with my bank.

I am also the personal accountant of the account holder, a foreigner
entrepreneur who has a financial portfolio of 20,499,500 (twenty
million four hundred ninety-nine thousand five hundred
United States Dollars.) $10.5M in fixed and additional dividends of
approximately $10.0M with indefinite interest

My proposition; I am ready to place you in a situation where a
instruction is given to officially release the deposit to you as
business associate, and all! the label must be made in accordance
With the rule of banking law, I can certainly guarantee you that in
the common law, the power to bequeath is equal to the first
rudiments of the law, and this power has been extended to all. There
is there no rule which prevents an inheritance from being so exhausted by
legacies as to render it unworthy of acceptance by the heir; basically all
sane people are competent to bequeath and bequeath real and personal
property except small children with all of this i would say we have the
clear advantage of completing an operation smooth and seamless in which the
paper work will be coordinated in such a way that your sole beneficiary
status is confirmed. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am ready to split the
money with you in half and no more; ie: I will simply name you as the next
of kin and ask them to return the deposit to you; then we divide the
product into two equal parts.

If we can agree, I will have the pleasure of meeting you,
once this task is complete. The content of this letter should be
treated with the utmost confidentiality and a prompt response from you will
be highly appreciated. However, if you are not interested
proposal, please accept my apologies for sending you the message and please
delete the message, I promised you will never hear from me.

I anticipate your cooperation.

Thank you for your time and have a nice day.

Best wishes,
Gilbert Jones

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