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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: "Thomas Harvey." <tmharvey102@walla.com>
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2005 12:29:32 +0200
Subject: HELP RECOVER OUR FAMILY FORTUNE

Dear Sir,

Naturally this mail will come to you as a suprise,but if I may crave your indulgence,Im Mr.Thomas Harvey,the first son of COSMUS HARVEY, one of the leading black farmer in Zimbabwe who was recently murdered in the land dispute in my country .

I APOLOGISE FOR INVADING YOUR PRIVACY,BUT PLEASE,I appeal to you to exercise a little patience and read through my letter, and I guarantee you will not have wasted your time. Before the death of my father, he had taken me to Johannesburg to deposit the sum of $16.5m(SIXTEEN Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States dollars) in one of the private security company, as he fore saw the looming danger in Zimbabwe this money was deposited in a box as gem stones to avoid much demurrage from security company.

This amount was meant for the purchase of new machines and chemicals for the Farms and establishment of new farms in Swaziland.This land problem came when Zimbabwean President Mr.Robert Mugabe introduced a new Land Act Reform, wholly affected the rich white farmers and some few black farmers. And this resulted to the killing and mob action by Zimbabwean war veterans and some lunatics in the society. In fact a lot of people were killed because of this Land reform Act for which my father was one of the victims. It is against this background that, I and my family fled Zimbabwe for fear of our lives and are currently staying in Madrid Spain where we are seeking asylum and more so i have decided to transfer my father’s money to a more reliable foreign account.

since the Spainish Law prohibits a refugee(asylum seeker) to open any bank account or to be involved in any financial transaction through out the territorial zone of Spain, As the eldest son of my father, I am saddled with the responsibility of seeking a genuine foreign account where this money could be transferred without the knowledge of my government who are bent on taking everything we have got. The South African government seems to be playing along with them. I am faced with the dilemma of moving this amount of money out of South Africa for fear of going through the same experience in future, both countries have similar political history. As a businessman,I am seeking for a partner who I have to entrust my future and of my family in his or her hands, I must let you know that this transaction is risk free.

If you accept to assist me and my family,all I want you to do for me,is to make arrangements with the security company to clear the consignment (funds) from their afiliate office here in spain as i have already given directives for the consignment to be brought to Spain from South Africa. But before then all modalities will have to be put in place e.g change of owner ship to the consignment and this money I intend to use for investment. I have two options for you. Firstly you can choose to have certain percentage of the money for nominating your account for this transaction. Or you can go into partnership with me for the proper profitable investment of the money in your country.

Which ever the option you want, feel free to notify me.I have also mapped out 5% of this money for all kinds of expenses incurred in the process of this transaction. If you do not prefer a partnership I am willing to give you 15% of the money while the remaining 80% will be for my investment in your country. Contact me with the above E-mail: (tmharvey102@walla.com ) while I implore you to maintain the absolute secrecy required in this transaction.

Thanks,

Yours Faithfully,

Thomas Harvey.


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