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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:
  • "a trustworthy foreign business partner" (the question is not whether they can trust you, but whether you have any reason to trust this person or anyone this person tells you to contact)
  • "million dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
• This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
  

Fraud email example:

From: kenneth juliet <kee01jj@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <kenn_juliet70@yahoo.fr>
Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2007 22:19:09 +0200
Subject: CONFIDENTIAL



Attn: Director, Dear,
Warm Greetings,
My name is Kenneth Williams and my sister Juliet; we are the children of Late General Alexander Williams the former Director of military intelligence and special acting General Manager of the Sierra Leone Diamond mining cooperation.
I am contacting you to seek your good assistance to transfer and invest USD 18MILLION DOLLARS belonging to my late father which is deposited in a bank here. This money is revenues from solid minerals and diamonds sale which were under my fathers possession before the civil war broke out.
Following the brake out of the war, almost all government offices and corporations were attacked and vandalized. The SLDMC was looted and burnt down to ashes, and diamonds worth millions of dollars was stolen by the rebel military forces who attacked my fathers office. Many top governments officials and senior army officers were assassinated and my father was a key target because of his very sensitive military position and appointment in the SLDMC.
Regrettably, my father was captured and murdered along with half brother in cool blood during a mid-night rebel shoot-out when our official residence in Freetown, My mother sustained very several bullet injuries which resulted to her untimely and painful death in a private hospital here in Ivory Coast. Now we are alone in a totally strange country without parents, relatives or anybody to care for us at our tender ages.
Before our mother died, she told us that our father deposited some money which he made from diamond sales and contracts at this bank here in Ivory Coast and that we should pray and find a trustworthy foreign business partner who would help us to transfer and invest this money in profitable business venture. She told us to do this quickly so that we can leave Ivory Coast with our cousin brother who is here in the camp with us and, then settle down abroad. She gave us all the bank documents to prove the deposit and then told us that my father used my name as the only son to deposit the money in the bank.
She told us that this is the reason why we came to Ivory Coast. My mother died afterwards. May her spirit rest in perfect peace.
I have gone to the bank to make inquires about this money and I spoke with the director of International remittance who assured me that the everything is intact and promised to help me transfer this money to my foreign partners bank account as soon as I provide my partners foreign bank account for them. However, the director is very concerned because of my age, I am 21years and as such promised to help me and he would like to speak with my partner to ensure that this money is invested wisely in only profitable business because of his personal interest and sympathy for me.
If you are will and serious to assist us, please let us know immediately and provide us with your full names and address, telephone numbers for easy communication. Please note that I can only offer you 25% of the total money as compensation for your noble assistance in accordance with my mother’s advice. I am interested in any profitable commercial venture which you consider very well in your country and you would also get a school for me and my little sister so that we can finish our college education.
I am hoping to hear your urgent response so that I can not look for another foreign partner. Thank you and May God bless you and your dear family.
Yours sincerely, Kenneth and Juliet Williams
_________________________________________________________________
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Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam