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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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "richard smith1" <richardsmith1@private-business.net>
Reply-To: richard1_smith@yahoo.ca
Date: Thu, 24 Mar 2005 12:57:19 +0000
Subject: CLAIME NEXT OF KIN

Good day,

I am Mr Richard Smith, staff of International Private Banking at our
Bank. I am contacting you concerning a deceased customer and an
investment he placed under our banks 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 come by as a result of
this mail.

I contacted you independently of our investigation 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 2000, the subject
matter; came to our bank to engage in business discussions with our
private banking division. He informed us that he had a financial portfolio
of
Thirty two million seven hundred thousand united state
dollars(32,700,000.00), 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
private banking sector, especially given the volume of funds he wished to
put into our bank. 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 ten million United States Dollars, this margin was
not the full potential of the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed
returns on investments. In mid 2001, he asked that the money be
liquidated because he needed to make an urgent investment requiring cash
payments in here in the United Kingdom. He directed that I liquidate the
funds and deposit it with a security firm here in London.

I informed him that the bank would have to make special arrangements to
have this done and in order not to circumvent due process, the bank
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. Cash movement across boarders has become especially strict since
the incidents of 9/11. I contacted my affiliate here in London and made
the funds available to the security firm. I undertook all the processes
and made sure I followed his precise instructions to the letter and had
the funds deposited at the London based security consultancy firm,
Corporate Securities Co.
Corporate Securities Co is a specialist 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. 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 Corporate Securities
Co. The deceased 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 February 2003.

In June last year, we got a call from Corporate Securities Co informing
us that the activity of that particular portfolio. This was an
astounding position as far as I was concerned, given the fact that I managed
the private banking sector I was the only one who knew about the deposit
at Corporate Securities Co, and I could not understand why the deceased
had not come forward to claim his deposit. I made futile efforts to
locate the deceased in his country, he was a Russian business man, A
former deputy chief executive if I recall correctly and part of the
so-called oligarchy. I immediately passed the task of locating him to the
internal investigations department of the bank. Four days later,
information started to trickle in, apparently our client was dead. A person
who
suited his description was declared dead of a heart attack in Cannes,
South of France.

We were soon able to identify the body and cause of death was
confirmed. The bank immediately launched an investigation into possible
surviving next of kin to alert about the situation and also to come forward
to
claim his estate. 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 banking, 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 bank also gives the choice to depositors of
having their mail sent to them or held at the bank itself, ensuring that
there are no traces of the account and as I said, rarely do they nominate
next of kin. Private banking clients apart from not nominating next of
kin also usually in most cases leave wills in our care, in this c!
ase; the deceased died without a testate.

In line with our internal processes for account holders who have passed
away, we instituted our own investigations in good faith to determine
who should have right to claim the estate. This investigation has for
the past months been unfruitful. We have scanned every continent and used
our private investigation affiliate companies to get to the root of the
problem. It is this investigation that resulted in my being furnished
with your details as a possible relative of the deceased. My official
capacity dictates that I am the only party to supervise the investigation
and the only party to receive the results of the investigation. What
this means, you being the last batch of names we have considered, is that
our dear late fellow died with no known or identifiable family member.
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.

According to practice, Corporate Securities Co will by the end of the
first quater of this financial year/ and last quater of the year which
is 2005 broadcast a request for statements of claim to our bank, failing
to receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit
back to the bank. This will result in the money entering the bank
accounting system and the portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the
private banking division. This will not happen if I have my way. What I
wish to relate to you will smack of unethical practice but I want you to
understand something. It is only an outsider to the banking world who
finds the internal politics of the banking world aberrational. The world
of private banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for those
who occupy certain offices and oversee certain portfolios. You should
have begun by now to put together the general direction of what I propose.
I alone have the deposit details and they will release the depos!
it to no one unless I instruct them to do so.

I alone know of the existence of this deposit for as far as the bank is
concerned, the transaction with our late customer concluded when I sent
the funds to corporate securities, all outstanding interactions in
relation to the file are just customer services and due process. Corporate
Securities Co, has no single idea of what the history or nature of the
deposit. They are simply awaiting instructions to release the deposit
to any party that comes forward. This is the situation. This bank has
spent great amounts of money trying to track this mans family; they have
investigated for months and have found no family. The investigation has
come to an end. My proposal; you share similar details to the late
fellow; I am prepared to place you in a position to instruct Corporate
Securities Co 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
in half. That is: I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and
have them release the deposit to you. We share the proceeds 50/50. I would
have gone ahead to ask the funds be released to me, but that would have
drawn a straight line to me and my involvement in claiming the deposit.
I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you within a few
days. I will simply inform the bank of the final closing of the file
relating to the deceased I will then officially communicate with
Corporate Securities Co and instruct them to release the deposit to you.
With
these two things: all is done. The alternative would be for us to have
Corporate Securities Co 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 from Corporate Securities Co. We can fine-tune this
based
on our interactions. I am aware of the consequences of this pr!
oposal. I ask that if you find no interest in this project that you
should discard this mail. I ask that you do not be vindictive and
destructive.

If my offer is of no appeal to you, delete this message and forget I
ever contacted you. Do not destroy my career because you do not approve
of my proposal.

I await your response.

E-email richard3_smith@yahoo.ca

Mr Richard Smith


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