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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: virack heng <virackheng@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 00:50:55 +0700
Subject: DEAR FRIEND,

My name is Mr. Virack Heng from south east Asia. I am a government
officials , in charge of all government contracts awarded from the ministry
of works and housing. [ M.W.H] .

Please let me make it clear to you that I am a person of high integrity and
would never involve in any illicit or dishonest business if there is no
reality.

I purposely and personally contact you, as I am interested for a creditable
fruitful business relationship with you. I hope you would acknowledge our
business cooperation with the best of your understanding. I need your
collaborative partnership to invest with you in your country also I would
like us to have a very intellectual and comprehensive discussion regarding
the investment plan and further details.

I am pleased to let you know that I have acquired a very extensive
portfolio which is impressive and indeed a great asset from the ministry,
and it takes special dedication, commitment and perseverance to acquire or
to get through such a demanding course of work, I decide to settle down to
get on with my private life and investment with your cooperation and we can
have a mutual joint agreement on the shares for the investment dividends.
This is my personal business cooperation with you and of a very
confidential nature and not involving my entire ministry of works and
housing, as i am about to retired from the ministry.

I have the available fund for the investment which I believe with this
amount we can do a lot and my definite reason for investing in a foreign
country is considering my position with the ministry, the commitments and
the confidentiality of our cooperation, so I would not invest such a larger
scale of business and money here in order to protect my reputation. I hope
you can understand my position. Having this established in your country we
both can maintain equal rights in our business cooperation as shareholders.
I have no problem with that in as much as we abide by the obligation.

I have the following ideas for investment.
1. Real Estate Business: Apartment/building, Hotels with modern facilities.
2. Cement Plant/Industry (Manufacturing and supply)
3. Fuel/gas Stations in different cities, regions/locality, Biofuels, etc
4. Highly skilled services in Oil logging (Upstream and downstream
operations, Exploration and discovery)

Let me know if you have any experience in the above sectors, another Option
is this: I may be interested to invest in your present company as a
shareholder, or we may set up a separate Joint Venture company.

If you consider my ideas to be viable and profitable in your country, or
you have other ideas to recommend, Please advise so we may have a
particular focus and proceed with every other formalities for the
investment accomplishment.

Looking forward to hearing from you for a mutual cooperation, Reply to
Private email{virackheng2013@gmail.com}

Best regards,
Virack Heng.

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