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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: "Chen qingxuan" <chenqingxuan03@msn.com>
Reply-To: inchenxuan@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005 20:44:16 +0000
Subject: GET BACK TO ME

Chen Qingxuan
TSB Pacific Limited
Hong Kong Branch

Thank you for giving me your time. Please be patient and read my email to
you.

I am a staff of TSB Group attached in private Banking Services. I am
contacting you concerning a customer and, an investment placed under our
banks management 4 years ago.

In 2001, the subject matter; ref: bb/tsb/bank/73 came to our bank to engage
in Private Banking services, I was the officer assigned to his case. We met
on numerous occasions prior to any investments being placed. I encouraged
him to consider various growth funds with prime ratings. Based on my advice,
we spun the money around various opportunities and made attractive margins
for our first months of operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at
this point at over 10 million United States Dollars, this margin was not the
full potential of the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on
investments.

In line with the instructions he had earlier given to liquidate the funds
after 3 years in order for him to make some Investment requiring cash
payments in Europe,I followed his instructions and I later made numerous
attempt to contact him after 3 years in order to get further instructions
from him.I made futile efforts to locate him and I immediately passed the
task of locating him to the internal investigations department of our bank.
A person who suited his description was declared dead of a heart attack in
Cannes, South of France. We were soon enough able to identify the body and
cause of death was confirmed. The bank immediately launched an investigation
into possible surviving next of kin to alert about the situation and also to
come forward to claim his estate.

If you are familiar with private banking affairs, those who patronize our
services usually prefer anonymity, but also some levels of detachment from
conventional processes. In his bio-data form, he listed no next of kin. In
the field of private banking, opening an account with us means no one will
know of its existence, accounts are rarely held under a name; depositors use
numbers and codes to make the accounts anonymous. This bank also gives the
choice to depositors of having their mail sent to them or held at the bank
itself, ensuring that there are no traces of the account.Private banking
clients apart from not nominating next of kin also usually in most cases
leave wills in our care, in this case; he died in testate.

There is US$ 14,000,000.00 deposited, I alone have the deposit details and
this will be release to no one unless I instruct my Bank to do so. I am
prepared to place you in a position to instruct my Bank to release the
deposit to you as the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt of the
deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you in half and no more. That
is, I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have them release the
deposit to you. We share the proceeds 50/50.

If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this process towards a
conclusion. I await your quick response.

Sincerely,
Chen Qingxuan


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