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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.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Mr.Alex Tucker" <atamk20059@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 04 Oct 2005 00:06:50 +0000
Subject: GOOD ACCESS. Can I Trust You?

15, Rugby Street,
Circular Road, London
CV7 4PG, United Kingdom

Hello,
I know that this mail will come to you out of the blue as a total surprise.
Well, I have a business proposal which I know might interest you. I believe
that you would be in a position to assist me in my bid to transfer the sum
of (£18.5M.) Eighteen Million Five Hundred Thousand British Pounds into a
foreign bank account. So study the following account carefully and reply
urgently.

I am Mr.Alex Tucker, an Auditor of a bank here in London. During the course
of our auditing, I discovered a floating fund in an account opened in the
bank in 1999 and since 2000 nobody has operated on this account. After a lot
of investigation I discovered that the owner of the bank account died
without a beneficiary. The money is floating and if I do not remit this
money out it will be forfeited for nothing. The owner of the account is Mr.
Magnus Smith, a foreigner. He died since 2000 and the bank account has no
other beneficiary. My investigation proved to me that nobody knows about
this account or anything concerning it. So I want to grab this opportunity,
as it is no harm to nobody.

I am here soliciting for your assistance as a foreigner because the money
cannot be approved to anybody here. But It can be approved to a foreigner
with valid international passport or drivers license and foreign bank
account because the money at stake is in British Pound sterling and the
former owner of the account is a foreigner. The management must approve this
payment to you if you have the correct information of this account, which I
will give to you, upon your positive response and once I am convinced that
you are capable and will meet up with instruction of key bank official who
is deeply involved with me in this project.

With my influence and the position of the bank officials, we can transfer
this money to any foreigner’s reliable account, which you can provide with
assurance that this money will be intact pending our physical arrival at
your end for sharing. Note that an existing foreign bank account or an empty
account can serve to receive this money. The banks official will destroy all
documents of the transaction immediately this money is into your nominated
bank account.

At the conclusion of this business, you will be given 20% of the total
amount, 75% will be for the bank official and I, while 5% will be for
expenses both parties might have incurred during the course of this
transaction.

May I stop here. Reply urgently so that I will inform you the next step to
take. Send also your private phone and fax number including the full details
of the bank account to used for the deposit.

Best regards.
Mr.Alex Tucker.

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