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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: "Mr. Rowland Lauterburg" <rowinv256@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: rowland_lauterburg@o2.pl
Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 02:11:00 +0000
Subject: Partnership Business Proposal

Dear Partner,

 

Please do not let this come to you as a surprise; I am

only contacting you because I need you as a foreign

partner in transaction. I am Rowland Lauterburg, a

management staff in a bank in Switzerland. I am

contacting you on business transfer of a huge sum of

money from a deceased account. Though I know that a

transaction of this magnitude will make any one

apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that

all will be well at the end of the day. We decided to

contact you due to the urgency of this transaction.

 

We discovered an abandoned sum of Eighteen Million

Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars

($18,500,000.00) in an account that belongs to one of

our foreign customers, Harunna Muhammad. We believed

that this fund belongs to Saddam Hussein because

Harunna Muhammad is an associate of Saddam Hussein and

he died in the war in Iraq because after the war, no

one has come forward to lay claims for this money as

the heir and there has been no contact from either him

or any one to the bank. We cannot release the fund

from his account unless someone applies for claim as

the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our

banking guidelines. Upon this discovery, we now seek

your permission to have you stand as a next of kin to

the deceased as all documentations will be carefully

worked out by us for the funds ($18,500,000.00) to be

released in your favor as the beneficiary's next of

kin. It may interest you to know that we have secured

from the probate an order of mandamus to locate any of

deceased beneficiaries.

 

Please acknowledge receipt of this message in

acceptance of our mutual business endeavor by

furnishing me with your full names, your complete

address, a direct telephone and fax numbers for better

communication. These requirements will enable us file

letter of claim to the appropriate departments for

necessary approvals in your favor before the transfer

can be made. You shall be compensated with 40% of this

Money on final conclusion of this project. I find

myself privileged to have this information and this is

a great opportunity of a life time of success without

risks.

 

I await your urgent response to this proposal so that

I can give you more modalities on how we intend to

carry out this transaction without breaking any

international money laws.

 

Please send your reply to [rowland_lauterburg@o2.pl].

 

My Regards,

 

Mr. Rowland Lauterburg.



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