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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: karlwoods1@inlink.it
Reply-To: karlwoods1@02.pl
Date: 6 Jul 2005 12:59:14 -0000
Subject: let me know


Barclays Bank Plc
63 St. Mary Axe
London EC3A 8LE

Reply to karlwoods@o2.pl

I am Mr. Karl Woods, Senior Credit Officer,
Barclays Bank Plc London. I am writing following an
opportunity in my office that will be of immense
benefit to both of us.

In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of
£12.5million British Pounds Sterling (Twelve Million
Five Hundred Thousand British Pounds Sterling) in an
account that belongs to one of our foreign customers
Late Mr. Morris Thompson an American who unfortunately
lost his life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines
Flight 261 which crashed on January 31 2000, including
his wife and only daughter. You shall read more about
the crash on visiting this website.

http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/

http://www.nativefederation.org/history/people/mThompson.html

Since we got information about his death, we have been
expecting his next of kin or relatives to come over
and claim his money because the Bank cannot release
the funds unless somebody applies for it as next of
kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in our
banking guidelines.

Unfortunately I learnt that his supposed next of kin
being his only daughter died along with him in the
plane crash leaving nobody with the knowledge of this
fund behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this
discovery that I and two other officials in this
department now decided to do business with you and
release the money to you as the next of kin or
beneficiary of the funds for safe keeping and
subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it
and we don't want this money to go back into
Government treasury as unclaimed bill.

We agreed that 20% of this money would be for you as
foreign partner, while the balance will be for my
colleagues and I. We will visit your country for the
disbursement according to the percentages indicated
above once this money gets into your account. Please
be honest to me as trust is our watchword in this
transaction.

Note that this transaction is confidential and risk
free. As soon as you receive this mail you should
contact me by return mail whether or not you are
willing to enter into this deal. In the event you are
not interested, I sincerely ask that you disregard
this email and tell no one about it. I am very careful
on truncating my banking career should you mention
this to someone else. I hope you can be trusted in
this regard.

Please note that all necessary arrangement for the
smooth release of these funds to you has been
finalized. We will discuss much in details when I do
receive your response.

Please in your response include your telephone and fax
numbers for a better communication between us.

Best regards

Karl woods


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