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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: "Ron K. Vaye" <rkvaye@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: rkvaye@yahoo.ca
Date: Wed, 28 Sep 2005 08:47:11 +0000
Subject: Trusting to hear from you immediately.

FROM THE DESK OF RON K. VAYE
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING MANAGER,
HSBC BANK LONDON.
TEL: 447031909565
FAX: 448712474191
E-MAIL: rkvaye@yahoo.ca

Dear Friend,

I am the manager of Auditing and Accounting department of HSBC BANK LONDON.
In my department, we discovered an abandoned sum of (Eleven Million, Three
Hundred and Seven Thousand, Four Hundred and twnety One United States
Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers
(MR.ADRIANO MULLA from AMERICA) who died along with his entire family
in July 2000 in a plane crash. For more information about the crash visit
this
site:(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm)

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of
kin to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless
somebody applies as next of kin or relation to the deceased as indicated in
our banking guidelines and laws, but unfortunately we learnt alongside with
him at the plane crash leaving nobody behind for the claim. It is therefore
upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you
and the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is
coming for it and we don't want this money to go into
the bank's treasury as ''unclaimed bill''. The banking law and guideline
here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after five years, the
money will be transfered into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The
request of a foreigner as next of kin in this businessis occassioned by the
fact that the customer was a foreigner and a BRITISH citizen cannot stand as
next of kin to a foreigner.I agree that 30% of this money will be for you as
a respect to the provision of a foriegn account by you, and 70% would be for
me Thereafter, I will visit your country for disbursement according to the
percentage indicated.

Therefore, to enable the immediate transfer of this fund to you as arranged,
you have to apply first to the bank as a relation or next of kin of the
deceased with a text of application form that I will send to you when I hear
from you, hence I will want you to send to me your private telephone
and fax numbers for easy and effective communication and location wherein
the money will be remitted.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the text of
the application form . Note that this transaction is hitch-free as all
required arrangements have been made for the transfer. You should contact me
through the above contact details immediately as soon as you receive
this letter. Trusting to hear from you immediately.

Yours Faithfully,

MR. RON K. VAYE
AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING MANAGER,
HSBC BANK LONDON


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