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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: gardner_nedbank@yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2005 12:38:59 +0200
Subject: GOOD DAY

Mr.James Gardner
Johannesburg - South Africa.
Tel: +27 73 3964188
gardner_nedbank@yahoo.com

Dear Sir,

Courtesy of Business opportunity, I take liberty anchoredon strong desire to solicit for your assistance on this mutual beneficial and risk free transaction with you, which I hope you give urgent attention. To be precise, I am James Gardner the Manager of Bills/Exchange at the Foreign
Exchange/Remittance Department of NEDBANK South Africa.
In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of US$12,524,000.00 (Twelve Million, Five Hundred and Twenty Four Thousand United States Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our customers who died along with his entire family in 1988 Lockerbie Pan American Airline plane crash. Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of Kin to come over and claim his money,
because we can not release it unless somebody applied for its next of Kin or Relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking procedure, but unfortunately to no avail, and nobody has come forward to claim the money (because the mentioned next of kin which is Son died as well).
Therefore, upon this discovery I and other two officials inn my department now decide to establish a cordial business relationship with you, hence my contacting you. We want you to purportedly present your good self as the next of Kin or relation of the deceased so that we can prepare documentations and release the funds (US$12.524 Million) into your account for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and again we do not want the
funds to go into the Governments account as ?Unclaimed
Bill?.
The banking law and procedures herein stipulates that any account abandoned or dormant for a period of some years is subjected to be closed and all money contained therein will be forfeited to the Government Treasury Account. Now it is being speculated that the above sum will be transferred into Government Treasury Account as unclaimed funds on or before May 2005. The reason for you to present your good self as the next of kin in occasioned by the fact that the
deceased customer was a foreigner.
Mode of sharing after the successful completion of the
transfer is as follows, for the role you will be expected to play in the whole exercise, we have agreed to give you twenty five (25%) of the total sum, and 5% has been set aside for expenses we are going to encounter by both parties in the process of this transaction and the remaining 70% shall be for my colleagues and I.

In support of the aforementioned, you are urged to reply this letterindicating your readiness and interest to participate in the business. After you reply, you will be advised on the next step forward.
I quite believe that you will protect our interest by
keeping this business Top Secret and Confidential, as your interest will be equally protected in order to achieve and maintain maximum confidentiality. Trust to hear from you on the above numbers as I count on your earliest response.

Yours truly,
James Gardner

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