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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: "Mr. Solomon Kato" <fmonicajohnson@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mrsolomonkato@yahoo.fr
Date: Sun, 2 Nov 2014 10:40:16 +0100
Subject: =?UTF-8?B?4oCL4oCL4oCL4oCL4oCLIOKAi+KAiyBIZWxsbyBNeSBHb29kIEZyaWVuZA==?=


--
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​​
Hello My Good 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 Solomon Kato,an Accounts Manager with a Bank here in Ouagadougou
also known as "Burkina Faso". 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 Khao
Lak 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 dont 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 totalling $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.

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

Sincerely,
Mr Solomon Kato

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