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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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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.

Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "from the desk of" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "will come to you as a surprise" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "contact me immediately" (they are rushing you so you don't have time to think properly)
  • "foreign remittance department" (Banks mentioned in 419 scams are always fake (real banks don't communicate using mobile phones or free webmail addresses))
• This email message is a next of kin scam.

Fraud email example:

From: "edward willis" <edwardww1@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: edwillis12@yahoo.com
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 10:36:13 +0000
Subject: Dear Groot

FROM THE DESK OF
AUDIT AND ACCOUNTS UNIT,
MIDLAND BANK
LONDON, ENGLAND.
Compliment of the day
I am Mr Edward Willis,a staff of bills and exchange at the foreign
remittance Department of my Bank here in London. In my department, we
discovered an abandoned sum of (US$8.5M) Eight Million, Five hundred,
thousand United States Dollars only, in an account that belongs to Donald
Groot who died along with his entire family in 26th December 2003 in a
plane crash during their christmas holiday.

Since we got information about his death,the bank has been expecting his
next of kin to come over for the claims because we cannot release it unless
somebody applies as a next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated
in our banking guidelines.

Unfortunately we learnt that he did not mention any beneficiary to his
account before his sudden death. It is therefore upon this discovery that I
and a colleague of mine in the office now decided to contact you, and having
the same last name with him, it makes it easier for the money to be released
to you as the next of kin or relation to the decease since nobody is
fronting for the money and we do not want this funds to go into disbursement
account as unclaimed bill.
The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money remained
unclaimed after four(4) years the money will be transferred into the
government account as unclaimed fund.
We shall negotiate on the percentage split of the funds as we proceed.
Therefore to enable immediate release of the inheritance to you as arranged,
you should contact me immediately via email for further directives on how to
go about actualizing the claim in your name.
I look forward to your immediate response.
Best regards
MrEdward Willis.
N/B: I know that this email will come to you as a surprise, considering the
fact that it is unsolicited. I quite understand your concern over this
matter considering the happenings all over the world, I want to assure you
that this is a 100% legitimate and risk,feel free to contact me via above
email.

_________________________________________________________________
Get today's hot entertainment gossip
http://movies.msn.com/movies/hotgossip?icid=T002MSN03A07001

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam