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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: "Michael Smith" <mismith02@msn.com>
Reply-To: michael02@myway.com
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 14:09:39 +0000
Subject: Your Response.

Barrister Michael Smith Chambers,
Legal Practitioner and Financial Consultant.
72A Ajah Road, Victoria Island,
Lagos-Nigeria.
Dear Friend,

Good Day,
I am Barrister Michael Smith, the A legal Practitioner in charge of legal
proceedings section of Universal Trust Bank Plc. With due respect and
regard, I
have urgent and very confidential business proposal for you. We are
being Mandated to investigate all unclaimed payments in the bank and
during our investigation and auditing in this Bank and by Virtue of my
position as
the chairman I discovered a unclaimed sum of money to the tune of
US$65.000.000.00 (Sixty five million United Dollar which belong to JERRY
WILLIAMS a deceased passenger who died on January 31st 2000 with Alaska
Airlines Flight 261.You can as well confirm it by yourself through under
stated Website of the incident
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/
Since his untimely death the funds has been dormant in his account. On
further investigation we found outthat before his death, he died
without making a (will) and all attempts to trace his next of kin was
fruitless and neither did he declare any next of kinin the official document
in the Bank including his Bank deposit paper in the Bank. No one has
ever come forward to claim the fund. According to our ethnic Law of
nation, at the expiration of 5 (five! ) years, the money will revert to the
ownership of the Nigerian government if nobody applies to claim the
funds.
Consequently, my proposal is that I would like you to Stand in as the
next of kin to MR.JERRY WILLIAMS so that the fruits of this old man
labor will not get into the hands of some corrupt government officials.This
is simple, I will like you to provide immediately your full name and
address so that an Attorney will prepare the necessary documents and
affidavits which will put you in place the next of kin. We shall employ the
service of an accredited Attorney for the draftingand notarization
of the WILL and to obtain the necessary documents in your favor for the
transfer. A bank account in any part of the world which you will
provide will then facilitate the transfer of this money to you as the
beneficiary/next of kin. The money will be paid into your account for us to
share in the ration of 75% for me and 25% for you.
There is no risk at all as the paper work for this transaction will be
done by the Attorney and my position as an insider of the bank i shall
make sure to see the successful execution of this transaction. If you
Are interested, please reply immediately via telephone or by email.
Upon your response, I shall then provide you with more details and
relevant documents that will help you to understand the transaction. Please
observe utmost confidentiality, and rest assured that this transaction
would be most profitable for both of us because I shall require your
assistance to invest my share in your Country.

Best regards,
Barrister Michael Smith


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