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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: "Clarke Pearce" <clarkepearce444@msn.com>
Reply-To: clarkepearce444@tiscali.co.uk
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2006 13:26:47 +0000
Subject: Reply...ASAP

>From The Desk of:
Mr. Clarke Pearce,
Auditor General, Natwest Bank Group,
Caryle House, Carlyle Rd, Cambridge,CB4 3DH,
United Kingdom.

Dear Friend,

REQUEST FOR YOUR PROMPT ATTENTION

I am Mr. Clarke Pearce, Auditor General of Natwest Bank Group, UK. I am
writing following an opportunity in my office that will be of immense
benefit to both of us. In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of
£16.400.000.00 (Sixteen Million, Four Hundred thousand British Pounds
Sterling) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers, Late
Mr. Robert Thorgrimson an American who unfortunately lost his life in the
plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January 31, 2000,
including his wife. You shall read more about the crash on visiting this
site. http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of
kin or relatives to come over and lay claims to 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. Unfortunately, I learnt
that his supposed next of kin being his only daughter died along with him in
the plane crash leaving nobody with the knowledge of this funds behind for
the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I and two other
officials in this department now decided to make business with you and
release the money to your possesion as the next of kin or beneficiary of the
funds for safety keeping and subsequent disbursement, since nobody is laying
claims to it and we don’t want this money to go back into Government
treasury as unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such money remained
after six(6) years will be transferred into banking treasury as unclaimed
funds. We agreed that 35% of this money would be for you as gratification
for assistance rendered, while the balance will be for my colleagues and me.
I will visit your country for the disbursement according to the percentages
indicated above once this money gets into your account. Please be honest to
me as trust stands to be our watchword in this transaction. Our assurance is
that your role is risk free to accord this transaction the legality it
deserves as with all modalities put in place we are certain in actualizing a
hitch free transfer of the funds without any complications. Kindly signify
your intention to assist by sending me an email for further procedures
relating to this transaction.

Please note that all necessary arrangement for the smooth release of these
funds to you has been finalized. We will discuss much in details when I do
receive your response. If you are interested in this project contact me as a
matter of urgency for further directives.

Best regards,
Mr. Clarke Pearce


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