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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: "William Moris" <williammoris2@msn.com>
Reply-To: williammoriswilliam@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 14:16:53 +0000
Subject: CAN I TRUST YOU?

NATWEST BANK PLC
ST. THOMAS HOSPITAL
LAMBETH PALACE RD
LONDON
SE1 7EH

FROM THE DESK OF : WILLIAM MORIS

Compliments of the day,

Before proceeding, I wish to introduce myself to you; I am William Moris a
staff of Natwest Bank plc, London working in the accounts department. I am
pleased to get across to you for a very urgent and profitable business
proposal which I believe will profit the both of us after completion.
I contacted you after a careful thought that you might be capable of
handling this business transaction, which I explained below.

There is this immigrant Mr. Andreas schranner, property magnate who was
based in the U.K., who happens to be one of our very good clients. On the
25th of July 2000, Mr. Andreas schranner, his wife Maria, their daughter
Andréa eich, her husband Christian, and their children katharina and
maximilian all died in the air France concord plane crash bound for New York
in their plan for a world cruise.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

Before his death, he was having a closing balance of s$55,500,000.00 (fifty
five million five hundred thousand dollars only) in my branch with account
no: 01514770727 & deposit code no: nwbbaxbsl. Upon maturity, a routine
notification was forwarded to his address but we got no reply.

All attempts to trace his next of kin were fruitless. I therefore made
further investigations and discovered that Mr. Andreas Schranner did not
declare any next of kin or relation in all his official documents,including
his bank deposit paperwork in my bank. This sum of us$55,500,000.00 has been
floating as unclaimed since 2000 in my bank as all efforts to get his
relatives have hit the stones.

According to the British Law, the money will revert to the ownership of the
British government if nobody applies to claim the fund. To avoid this money
being sent to the British treasury as unclaimed funds, I have decided to
seek your assistance to have you stand as his next of kin so that the said
fund (us$55.5m) would be released in your name as the next of kin and paid
into your account before I come over to meet you for sharing. All documents
and proof that will have you claim this fund without stress will be
forwarded to you upon your response to this mail more so, I want to inform
you that I have unanimously agreed to offer you 30% of the sum for the
assistance and role you are going to play in this ransaction, 20% will be
given to charity organizations rwhile the remaining will be my share. As a
Christian, i cannot stand and see this money being sent to the British
treasury while the poor suffer.

Please send your confidential telephone and fax number in your reply to this
business transaction.

God bless you.

Mr. William Moris


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