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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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: clembrown@mighty.co.za
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 15:30:19 +0100
Subject: STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL


STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

Date: 6th Nov, 2008.

Dear friend,


I am writing you in respect of a certain Mr. Chen Huang, who died with his
wife and their only daughter in the Taiwanese plane crash of February 16,
1998. Please view this link, if you will :
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9802/16/taiwan.crash.update2/.

The late Mr. Chen Huang was Head Department of Foreign Exchange, Central
Bank of Taiwan . My name is Mr. Clemens Brown, a Swiss citizen by birth,
with African descent. I am the Treasury Manager of one of the Commercial
Banks here in Switzerland . Please read the rest of my story and the reason
for my writing you this mail.

The late Mr. Chen Huang was very rich by all standards and he has an account
with this bank here in Switzerland, where I work, which he opened way back
in 1995. By the time he died in 1998, he had amasses very substantial amount
of money in this account.

Because he died with the wife and only daughter, this account has remained
dormant to date. His only daughter who was his next-of-kin in the account,
died with him in the crash. And because of this, this account has remained
inactive ever since his death, although my bank has continued to credit
periodic interests to the amount in his account to date, which have been
compounding to make the account grow further. This has been going on in
these past 10 years, and nobody has come forward to ask for his money. As
things stand now, if nobody asks for this money very soon, it will be as
good as forfeited to the Swiss government, hence my writing you now. I am
absolute that No other person knows about this account or any thing
concerning it, except me and the Chief Internal Auditor of my Bank

Therefore, my purpose of writing you this letter, in your position and
capacity as a non-resident, and non-citizen of Switzerland, is to request
for your cooperation and collaboration with me, for you and I to demand for
and indeed claim the deceased's money in this his bank account with my bank
to ourselves, instead of allowing the Swiss authority to do same. Our moral
justification for doing so is that if we fail to do so, the bank, or Swiss
authority will certainly claim the money to themselves, like what had been
happening here in the past.

Friend, your cooperation/collaboration with me in this venture is inevitable
to it's success, because this money can only be released to a claimant that
is not a Swiss citizen and one that is domiciled outside the shores of
Switzerland . No doubt, you fit the criteria perfectly well. My idea here is
that our two sides will share this amount with the accrued interests, in
agreed ratios, after it is paid to you as the supposed authentic next-of-kin
to the deceased, because we need each other to make this happen.

Please take notice and get the understanding that I never wrote, implied, or
insinuated that the late Mr. Chen Huang was your dead relation, or was
related to you in any way, or even known to you, as I have no such evidence,
or any reason to suggest that. I am simply and confidently telling you that
the combination of the facts that your are a foreigner, domiciled outside
the Switzerland and my present privileged strategic position in the subject
bank, are more than sufficient for me to cause the money that he left in
his account since 1998, to be legitimately, genuinely and lawfully paid in
your favour, as if you were indeed related to him actually; the fact that
you are not, notwithstanding. And you and I will not be committing any crime
by doing so. Thus, I am also hereby guaranteeing you before hand, that this
project will be done according to internationally accepted standards of
practice and morals only.

Essentially, I need you to organize the reception and custody of the money
in any bank account, in any country outside Switzerland , which may, or may
not be your home country, or country of your normal domicile, until we share
the money in the end. My own duty is to arrange and cause our bank to
effect, the hitch-free movement/payment of the funds from the bank here to
such your chosen destination and doing so in the most legitimate, lawful and
ethically acceptable manner. To do this effectively, I have also gotten the
cooperation of the Head of the International banking Dept of this our bank
and the Chief Internal Auditor of my bank, whom I have co-opted in this
project and who are already working with me here on the project now. What is
even more interesting about this project is that you are not required to put
up, or pay even a dime of your own money in the project. Therefore, what
else can you ask for in this project, or could one wish for, better than
this?

There is currently $17,525, 300.00, (Seventeen million, five hundred and
twenty five thousand, three hundred US Dollars only) in the said account ,
plus the compounded accumulated interests that have accrued to this sum from
1998 to date, all of which we will be asking the bank to pay to us, in your
names and favour, vide Swift transfer(s), or cashier's cheques/checks. This
US$17,525,300 plus interests, is the amount I am telling you that we have to
pay to you wherever you want it paid and thereafter, we will share, or
re-invest and own same, upon mutually agreed ratios. The above amount will
be to our mutual benefits and be ours legitimately too . Out of this amount,
I am proposing for your consideration, that you will be entitled to one
third of the $17,525,300.00, (Seventeen Million, Five Hundred and Twenty
Five thousand, three Hundred US dollars only), which is at least
US$5,841,767 (Five million, Eight hundred and forty-one thousand, seven
hundred and sixty-seven US Dollars, {Plus1/3 of all interests that have
accrued on this sum from 1998 to date}, as your commission/share, upon the
completion of the project.

Again, in order not to run foul of the Patriot Act, or any other such laws
that may be in force anywhere, we can as well move this fund in many
installments of smaller bits of say $5.0m , or less at a time, if you want.
However, appropriate documentations, official authorizations and clearances
for this inheritance will accompany any sum being sent to you, to show the
source, legitimacy and legality of the payment. But whether we will
eventually be remitting the said funds to you en bloc, or installmentally,
the appropriate documentations, official authorizations and clearances for
this inheritance will first be processed and gotten for the total
inheritance in a one-off manner.

Moreover everything about this transaction will be done in a most civilized
and non-criminal way, which must be according to internationally acceptable
standards of practice and morals. In addition there is no risk of failure,
or legal, or security problems, or prosecutions etc, for anybody in the
transaction both now and in the future. Therefore, need I say again that you
will indeed not regret your choice of doing this transaction with me at all?
I therefore very earnestly ask for your sincerest cooperation in this
project and I will be very glad to give you some specifics as you may demand
from me, as soon as you have confirmed your interest in this proposal.
Please give me your urgent reply in very strict confidence, by email first
and we will proceed from there. I could be reached on the phone number
below, but I prefer you contact me via e-mail first, for a start.

Yours very Sincerely

Clemens Brown.

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