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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: "pitt smith" <pi3smith@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: pittzsmith@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 06 Oct 2006 19:49:13 +0000
Subject: Your sensitive proposal deal

Dear Good Day,

With due esteem respect please I beg your pardon for this unsolicited
nature; it was out of desperation and curiosity that made me to contact you.

To introduce myself, I am Mr. Pitt, I am the personal accountant to Mr.
Carlisle, a national of your country, who used to work with one of the
Biggest Oil Servicing Company here in London, herein, shall be referred as
my customer.

On the Thursday July 7, 2005 3:01 PM, my customer, his wife {Lady Juliet and
their two children {Rose and Dan} were involved in a Three blasts rocked the
London subway and one tore open a packed double-decker bus during the
morning rush hour Thursday, sending bloodied victims fleeing in what a
shaken Prime Minister Tony Blair called ``barbaric'' terrorist attacks. A
U.S. law enforcement official said at least 40 people were killed and London
hospitals reported more than 300 injured, unfortunately, him and his family
were victims that lost their lives. You can view this page for more
information

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280, -5124823,00.html

Since then I have made several enquiries to locate any of my customers,
extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful.

The bank has issued me a notice to provide the next of kin or have the
account liquidated within the next twenty-one official working days.

After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to search through the
Internet, to locate any member of his family or any close name to his, hence
I contacted you. I am contacting you to assist in repatriating the money and
property left behind by my client before they get liquidate or declare it
unserviceable by the bank where this huge deposits were lodged here in
London, where the deceased had his account valued precisely to be USD$115M
(One Hundred And Fifteen Million United States Dollars).

Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you to stand in as the next of
kin to, so that the fruits of this old man's labor will not get into the
hands of some group of corrupt government officials who will get rid of the
money and share it for their own selfish interest and greed.

Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 8 weeks
now, I seek your prompt consent to present you as the next of kin of the
deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at USD$115M can be paid
to you and then you and I can share the money according to any agreed ratio.

All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal
through. I guarantee that this will be executed under legitimate arrangement
that will protect you from any breach of the law.

Looking forward to your response in this proposal if you are interested, and
I will detail you with more information including my personal telephone
numbers for easy communication.
You can get back to me through my private email; pittzsmith@yahoo.com


Truly yours,
Mr. Pitt Smith

_________________________________________________________________
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