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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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Fraud email example:

From: "Wole Johnson ESQ" <stevmba@mscold.com>
Reply-To: wolejohnsont@yahoo.ca
Date: Mon, 04 Apr 2005 06:19:07 -0500
Subject: Partnership Proposal.

Dear Friend,

Firstly, not to cause you embarrassment, I am Barrister WOLE T. JOHNSON, a Solicitor at law and the personal attorney to named
GERALD W. LASTRELLA who died in an air crash along with his wife on the 31st October 1999 in an Egyptian airline boeing 990 with other passengers on board. You can confirm this fact from the website which was aired by the BBC WORLD NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/502503.stm

Since his death, none of his relations or persons have come forward to lay claims to his this funds as next-of-kin, and on my own i have made concerted effort to locate any of his relatives but all prove abortive, which makes me to believe that maybe nobody of his knows that he was operating this foreign account with an Insurance broking firm here in Nigeria. Based on the ethics and policies of the Deposit holding firm, this funds will be declared unclaimed funds and taken to the treasury of the bank as capital base of the bank, because already the account has been tagged dormant because it has exceeded the normal functional number of years. Inspite of the above please do bear in mind that l have made several enquiries with his country's embassies to locate any of my clients extended relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to contact you with this business partnership proposal. I have contacted you to assist in repat!
riating a
huge amount of money left behind by my client before they get confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Finance/Security Company where these huge deposit was lodged.

The deceased had a deposit valued presently at $30.5million (Thirty Million, Five Hundred Thousand United State Dolars) and the Company has issued me a notice to provide his next of kin or Beneficiary by Will otherwise have the account confiscated within the next sixty official working days. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 3years now, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin / Will Beneficiary to the deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at $30.5 Million US dollars can be paid to you. This will be disbursed or shared in these percentages, 60% to meand 40% to you.

I have all necessary legal documents that can be used to back up any claim we may make. All I require is your honest Co-operation, Confidentiality and Trust to enable us see this transaction through. I guarantee you that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. PLEASE DO GET IN TOUCH WITH ME URGENTLY BY E-mail: OR TELEPHONE : +234 803 3801106.

And please provide me the following: This is to enable me commence immediate preparation of all legal document that will back up our claim.

1. Full Name :
2. Your Telephone Number and Fax Number
3. Your Contact Address.

Your urgent response will be highly anticipated and appreciated.

Best regards,
WOLE T JOHNSON Esq

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