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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. Mike Appleton" <pichaisundai00@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mikeappleton@bigmir.net
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2017 18:50:40 -0700
Subject: Hello...


Good Day, Kindly accept my sincere apologies for my mode of contacting you =
out of the blues like this but something very urgent and important has come=
to our notice and we believe it is important we seek your consent for the =
mutual interest of all. I am Mike Appleton, Corporate Director at Maplecolt=
Holdings Limited; a Financial & Security Institute in London and personal =
funds manager to my late client. I am contacting you based on a financial o=
pportunity I discovered here in our Institute. It=92s about an abandoned su=
m of GB=A338,886.000.00 (Thirty Eight Million Eight Hundred and Eighty-Six =
Thousand Pounds Sterling) in our safety deposit vault that belongs to one o=
f our foreign customers, a citizen of your country that shares the same las=
t name with you. He died recently along with his wife and only son while ho=
lidaying in Porto Portugal and was flown back to England for burial. The ba=
nking policy can only allow the release of such funds to a benefactor throu=
gh an application as next of kin to the deceased. During our investigations=
we discovered he nominated his son as his next of kin. All efforts to trac=
e his other relations have proved impossible. The Embassy UK couldn=92t tra=
ce any of the deceased relations. The account has been dormant for a long t=
ime since his death. Therefore we decided to contact you, to seek your cons=
ent to enable us nominate you as the next of kin to the deceased and transf=
er the funds to you as the designated next of kin to the deceased. With the=
consent of our late client=92s solicitors, they shall confirm you as the n=
ext of kin; sole beneficiary to the deposit/funds to authorise funds transf=
er to you. After transfer of funds to your favor, you shall retain 60%, and=
38% ours, 2% set aside for expenses both parties might incur (if any) duri=
ng or after the transaction. We have all the relevant details about the dec=
eased, which shall enable us claim the fund successfully. Your positive res=
ponse will be highly appreciated to enable us favour you with a draft appli=
cation/account details of the deceased for submission to the Financial Inst=
itution in order to authenticate the claim to the deceased=92s estate. Plea=
se remember to always keep this information Confidential and do not discuss=
it with anybody. I GUARANTEE that this process would be executed under a l=
egitimate arrangement that would legally protect you from any breach of law=
. Should this business transaction be of interest to you and you would like=
to request a copy of draft application to proceed, please contact me via E=
mail mikeappleton@bigmir.net Or Direct Tel No: +44 7564 501 428 Please also=
contact me if you object to this proposal. Thanks and remain blessed. Mike=
Appleton

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