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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: "Matthew Wright" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <wrightt1024@ymail.com>
Date: Fri, 13 May 2011 17:45:04 +0300
Subject: Urgent Private Business Proposal!!!

REF: Urgent Private Business Proposal
 
Hello Dear
 
It is indeed my pleasure to write you this letter, which I believe will be a surprise to you as we have never meet before and I am deeply sorry if I have in any manner disturbed your privacy. Please forgive this unusual manner of contacting you, but this particular letter is of exceptional and very private in nature. But I know that there may be doubt and distrust in your heart in respect of this letter coupled with the fact that, so many individuals have taken possession of the Internet to facilitate their nefarious deeds, thereby making it extremely difficult for genuine and legitimate business class persons to get attention and recognition from foreigners. There is no way for me to know whether I will be properly understood, but it is my duty to write and reach out to you as a reliable person based on great fidelity, trust and determination to establish a long lasting business relationship with you for our mutual benefits.
 
I an accountant with a Bank in UAE. I just started working in the Foreign Remittance Department of the bank, where I came across a payment file valued at US$26.8million dollars and I took time to study it and found out that the fund fund was an accrued dividend from a back-log of an Excess Maximum Return Capital Profit (EMRCP) of an average of 1.2% on each private investment and corporate portfolio under our administration and control belonging to a deceased customer and it has been already approved and cleared for transfer, but the fund transfer has not been released due to fact that the beneficiary died in a plane crash along with his family leaving no next kin to claim the fund and could never show up for the fund claim and if the fund is not claimed within 90 days from today, the bank management will confiscate the fund into the bank's treasury as abandoned/unclaimed fund.
 
However, I do not intend to work here all the days of my life and I can release this fund to you, if you can agree to give me 50% of the total sum of US26.8million dollars while you take 50% for yourself. But you have to guarantee my security and help me to come over to your country, if I do release the fund to your bank account successfully. So I must make sure that you can guarantee my security and ensure that my future is secured with you before I can proceed with the transfer of the fund to your bank account accordingly because I will resign my position from the bank as soon as I completed the fund transfer to your bank account successfully as I do not want to work in the bank all my life but to establish my own business empire outside UAE.
 
Note that upon confirmation of the fund transfer in your bank account, I will clean up all your details from the transfer tracer and destroy your file in the bank to protect the fund transfer in your favour, after which I will resign from the bank and travel out to meet with you in your country for the sharing of the fund as we agreed.
 
If you are interested, do get in touch with me immediately and you should send me your convenient telephone number for easy communications and also reconfirm your information as required below, so that we can proceed with the deal immediately without delay.
 
(1) Your Full Name:
(2) Your Mailing Address:
(3) Phone, Fax and Mobile#:
(4) Your Occupation:
(5) A copy of your passport or driver's license
 
I await your urgent reply
 
Sincerely,
 
Mr. Matthew Wright
Dubai-United Arab Emirate
E-mail: matthewright@mail.mn

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