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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: "ANDREW PARKER" <andrewparkers@msn.com>
Date: Tue, 02 Aug 2005 15:54:13 +0000
Subject: Hello

Dear Sir/Madam


I Am Mr Andrew Parker, in charge of bills and foreign exchange remittance
Department of Royal Bank of England.



I am writing you this letter to ask for your support and co-operation to
carry out this business opportunity in my department. We discovered an
unclaimed sum of £9 Million (Nine Million British Pounds Sterling) in an
account belonging to one of our customer, who died in a Car crash with the
entire family in year 2002.

Since we got information about his death we have been expecting his next of
kin to come over and claim his money. Unfortunately, neither the family nor
the relation has appeared to claim this money. We cannot release this money
unless somebody applies as the next of kin or relation to the deceased.



Our banking guidelines indicated that if such money remained unclaimed for a
period of four (4) years, it would be transferred into Royal Bank of England
Treasury as unclaimed fund. Another officer and I in the department now
decided to transfer this money into your account as the next of kin or
relation of the deceased for easy collection since nobody is coming for it
and we don't want this money to go back into the bank treasury as the
unclaimed debt. In fact it is my friend that advised me to urgently arrange
to transfer out this money through another foreign beneficiary outside the
country.



We have decided to give you 20% of the total sum. So please, as a matter of
urgency send to me your telephone and fax numbers for effective
communication. I will do my best to see that we conclude this transaction
successfully on time.

Please if you are interested send me an immediate mail so that I can explain
the details to you, so you could understand everything about this business,
waiting for your urgent response.



Thank you.
Tony Thompson
send your reply to my private mail box:aparkers@wazzoomail.com


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