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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: Greetings! From Cees Driel <cees_driel056@godmail.dk>
Reply-To: cees_driel@hotmail.com
Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 00:04:55 +0200
Subject: Greetings! From Cees Driel


Greetings! From Cees Driel

Dear Friend,


I choose to reach you through this medium because it is the fastest
and most reliable way of communication, as I wish to solicit for your
urgent assistance in what i strongly believe will be of great benefit
to both of us.

I am Mr Cees Driel,an Accounts Manager with a Bank here in Cote D'
Ivoire also known as "Ivory Coast".
The issue I am presenting to you is a case of one of my late customer,
a businessman from Thailand who died leaving an unclaimed funds with
my bank.

In the year 2003, my late customer made a fixed deposit here in my
bank totaling $7.1 Million Dollars which was due to be collected in
2008 after 4 years maturity with accrued dividends.
On my yearly appraisal of my customers at the turn of every year, I
discovered that this fixed deposit remained overdue for retrieval. I
had put up series of mails and bank notifications to him which were
sent back uncollected.

It was a year ago that i discovered that he passed on along with his
wife and only child through 2004 Indian ocean Tsunami while resorting
at Khan Lack in Thailand. Since learning of his death , I have managed
his account expecting any of his extended relatives to come forward to
claim his money but all attempts to trace his relatives over the years
has been fruitless since he did not declare any of his relatives
information in his banking records with us.

Added to this, professional ethics obligates us to act with extreme
confidentiality when dealing with clients accounts of this type.
According to my country "Cote D' Ivoire" banking law, the money will
be bequeathed to the government if it remains unclaimed by a certain
period which is almost near.
However, I don’t belong to that school of thought which proposes
that the fortunes of unlucky people be given to the government and I
am fully convinced that no one would turn up to execute the letter of
administration to claim his funds before this short time.

Hence, I decided to contact you to come in as the next of kin/Business
partner to my late customer so that the funds totaling $7.1 million
(Seven Million, one Hundred Thousand Dollars) can then be transferred
to your nominated bank account in your country within 7 working days
after we have filed in your claims transfer application to the bank.

I will prepare every operation that will assist you to claim the funds
as the next of kin/confidential business partner and everything will
be left between you and me.
The share would be 50/50 or better we can still map out 5% for any
expenses. Again, I feel that you may be apprehensive and consider this
amount too big for you to defend. It does not matter, as there are
documents to back it up.

This transaction is risk free and as the most senior account manager
with the bank, be rest assured that all documents to enable you get
this fund as the next of kin will be carefully worked out by me.

Do not be bothered that you are not related in any way to my late
customer as I am in position to affix your name as the next of kin.
Kindly send your reply enclosing your Full Names, Contact Address and
Phone Number to me for confidentiality, to enable me talk to you
before I send you the certificate of deposit and other relevant
information relating to this fund transfer.

I need not emphasize the confidentiality of this issue and I therefore
appeal to you not discuss this request with anybody, even if you
decline to take full advantage of this great and urgent opportunity in
my bank.

I look forward to your quick reply by email

Sincère,

Mr Cees Driel




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