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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: "Williams winterway" <william@winterway.net>
Reply-To: williamwinterway@myway.com
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 15:40:32 +0000
Subject: From William.. Respond quickly

From the desk of Mr.William Winterway.
Hsbc Bank Plc
8 Canada Square
London E14 5HQ

Dear Friend,

PRIVATE AND URGENT.

My name is William Winterway, I am the credit manager in a bank here in the
United Kingdom.I am contacting you of a business transfer, of a huge sum of
money from a deceased account.Though I know that a transaction of this
magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you
that everything has been taken care off, and all will be well at the end of
the day. I decided to contact you due to the urgency of this transaction.

PROPOSITION:
I am the account officer of a foreigner named Gerald Welsh who died in an
earthquake and tsunami-ravaged Indonesian province of Aceh along with his
wife and entire family in December 26 2004 you can confirm this from the
published by CNN.Since his death, none of his next-of-kin are alive to make
claims for this money as his heir, because they all died in the same
earthquake and tsunami-ravaged (May their soul rest in peace) We cannot
release the fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as the
next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.

Upon this discovery, I now seek your permission to have you stand as a next
of kin to the deceased, as all documentations will be carefully worked out
by me for the funds (US$10,000,000.00) to be released in your favour as the
beneficiary's next of kin.It may interest you to know that we have secured
from the probate an order of manda mus to locate any of the deceased
beneficiaries.

I shall be compensating you with a million dollars ($4 Million dollars) on
final conclusion of this project for your assistance, while the balance $6
million dollars shall be for me for investment purposes. If this proposal is
acceptable by you, please endeavour to contact me immediately,and i will
want you not take undue advantage of the trust I have bestowned in you. I
await your urgent response.
Yours sincerely
William Winterway.



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