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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: "lee mekus" <olise_emeka3@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:01:11 +0000
Subject: Urgent Partnership.

Urgent Partnership.
Firstly, not to cause you embarrassment, I am Barrister MR. Mekus Lee, a
Solicitor at law and the personal attorney to named GERALD WELSH who died in
an air crash along with his wife on the 31st October 1999 in an Egyptian
airline Boeing 990 with other passengers on board. You can confirm this fact
from the website which was aired by the BBC WORLD NEWS. Since his death,
none of his relations or persons have come forward to lay claims to his
funds as next of kin, and on my own I have made concerted effort to locate
any of his relatives but all prove abortive, which makes me to believe that
maybe nobody of his knows that he was operating this foreign account with
Security firm in Europe. Based on the ethics and policies of the Deposit
holding firm, this fund will be declared unclaimed funds and taken to the
treasury of the bank as capital base of the bank, because already the
account has been tagged dormant because it has exceeded the normal
functional number of years. In spite of the above please do bear in mind
that l have made several enquiries with his country's embassies to locate
any of my clients extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful.
After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to contact you with
this business partnership proposal. I have contacted you to assist in
repatriating a huge amount of money left behind by my client before they get
confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Bank where this huge deposit
was lodged. The deceased had a deposit valued presently at $13million,
Thirteen Million United State Dollars and the Company has issued me a notice
to provide his next of kin or Beneficiary by will otherwise have the account
confiscated within the next sixty official working days. Since I have been
unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 3years now, I seek your
consent to present you as the next of kin and Will Beneficiary to the
deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at $13 Million US
dollars can be paid to you. This will be disbursed or shared in these
percentages, $10m to me and $3m to you. I have all necessary legal documents
that can be used to back up any claim we may make. All I require is your
honest Co-operation, Confidentiality and Trust to enable us sees this
transaction through. I guarantee you that this will be executed under a
legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. And
please provide me the following: This is to enable me commence immediate
preparation of all legal documents that will back up our claim. Full Name,
Your Telephone Number and Fax Number and Your Contact Address. Your urgent
response will be highly anticipated and appreciated.
Best regards,
Mr Mekus Lee

_________________________________________________________________
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