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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: "ABRAHAM KOLOM" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <abrahkol0@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:16:06 +0100
Subject: I am waiting to read from you

Dear Friend,
I am Abraham Kolom, Head of Investment Strategy at Coutts & Co.United Kingdom, the private financial security arm of Royal Bank of Scotland international, I am contacting you concerning a customer and an investment he placed under our management three years ago. I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the information you will come by as a result of this mail.I contact you independently and no one is informed of this communication. I would like to intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you.

In 2008, the subject matter came to our my office to engage in business discussions with our organization. He informed me that he had a financial portfolio of 8.7 million British Pounds Sterling, which he wished to have us turn over (invest) on his behalf. I was the officer assigned to his case, I made numerous suggestions in line with my duties as the de-facto chief operations officer of the organisation, especially given the volume of funds he wished to put into our care for investment.

We met on numerous occasions prior to any investments being placed. I encouraged him to consider various growth funds with prime ratings. The favored route in my advice to customers is to start by assessing data on 6000 traditional stocks and bond managers and 2000 managers of alternative investments. Based on my advice, we spun the money around various opportunities and made attractive margins for our first months of operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at this point at over 6 million British Pounds Sterling, this margin was not the full potential of the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments. In mid 2009, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed to make an urgent investment requiring cash payments. He directed that I liquidate the funds and have it deposited with Royal Asset Management Company which is an affiliate institution of Coutts & Co.

I informed him that Coutts & Co. would have to make special arrangements to have this done and in order not to circumvent due process, the organisation would have to make a 9.5 % deduction from the funds to cater for banking and statutory charges. He complained about the charges but later came around when I explained to him the complexities of the task he was asking of us. Large cash movements have become especially strict since the incidents of 9/11. I contacted my affiliate and had the funds available as he had requested. I undertook all the processes and made sure I followed his precise instructions to the letter and had the funds deposited with an Asset Management firm. This Asset Management is an especially private firm that accepts deposits from high net worth individuals and blue chip corporations that handle valuable products or undertake transactions that need immediate access to cash and housing Investment, These asset management company is focused solely on investors needs.

This small and highly private organization is familiar especially to the highly placed and well-connected organizations. In Line with instructions, the money was deposited with them. He told me he wanted the money there in anticipation of his arrival from Norway later that week. This was the last communication we had, this transpired around 25th April 2009.

In October,2009, I got a call from the Royal Asset Management Company informing us of the inactivity of that particular portfolio. This was an astounding position as far as I was concerned, given the fact that I am the Head of Investment Strategy at Coutts & Co. I was the only one who knew about the deposit at the Royal Asset Management Company, and I could not understand why our client had not come forward to claim his deposit. I made futile efforts to locate him. I immediately passed the task of locating him to the internal investigations department. Four days later, information started to trickle in, apparently our man was dead.

A person who suited his description was declared dead of a heart attack in Cannes, South of France. We were soon enough able to confirm all of this including cause of his death. I immediately launched an investigation into possible surviving next of kin to alert about the situation and also to come forward to claim his deposit with Royal Asset Management Company. If you are familiar with private banking affairs, those who patronize our services usually prefer anonymity, but also some levels of detachment from conventional processes.

In his bio-data form, he listed no next of kin. In the field of private financial security, opening an account with us means no one will know of its existence, accounts are rarely held under a name; depositors use numbers and codes to make the accounts anonymous. This organisation even gives the choice to depositors of having their mail sent to them or held at my office itself, ensuring that there are no traces of the account and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of kin. Our clients apart from not nominating next of kin also usually in most cases leave wills in our care.

This leaves me as the only person with the full picture of what the prevailing situation is in relation to the deposit and the late beneficiary of the deposit.This is the reason why contacted you to stand as a next of kin to the deasesed and to put claim on his investment with my organisation.I need to do have this transaction with someone that has no link of any type with me in order to ensure its confidentiality.

According to practice, Royal Asset Management Company will by the end of the year 2012 broadcast a request for statements of claim to Coutts and Co, failing to receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit to Coutts and Co. This will result in the money entering the Coutts and Co Private Bank accounting system and the portfolio will be out of my hands. This will not happen if I have my way.

There is 8,700,000.00 investment fund deposited in Royal Asset Management Company. I alone have the deposit details and they will release the deposit to no one unless I instruct them to do so. I alone know of the existence of this deposit for as far as Coutts and Co. is concerned, the transaction with the late customer concluded when I sent the investment funds to Royal Asset Management Company all outstanding interactions in relation to the file are just customer services and due process. The Royal Asset Management Company has no single idea of what's the history or nature of the deposit. They are simply awaiting instructions to release the deposit to any party that I may direct. This is the situation. I am prepared to instruct the Royal Asset Management Company to release the deposit to you as the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you. That is: I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have them release the deposit to you. We share the pr

I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you within a few days. I will simply inform the management of Coutts & Co. of the final closing of the file relating to our late client. I will then officially communicate with the Royal Asset Management Company and instruct them to release the deposit to you. With these two things: all is done. The alternative would be for us to have the Asset Management Company direct the funds to another bank with you as account holder. This way there will be no need for you to think of receiving the money directly from the company as it is not a conventional financial institution; they accept deposits from only organizations thus; what you hand over to them is what you get back. We can fine-tune this based on our interactions.

Meanwhile,i want to assure you that this transaction is 100% risk free.I have the power to make every thing work out successfully,and i am in the position to perfect the whole process to our favour.I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is from you refusing to work with me and alerting my bank. I am the only one who knows of this situation, good fortune has blessed you with a name that has planted you into the center of relevance in my life. Let's share the blessing.

If you find yourself able to work with me, contact me through my email or call my direct line +44 7035 968 637. If you give me positive signals, I will send to you a memorandum of understanding which you will sign and send back a copy to me.I do not want my company to observe any direct link between me and you.Make sure that you keep my contact to you and this deal very secret without any third party knowing about it.

I await your response.

Sincerely,
Mr.Abraham Kolom.

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