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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: "Charles Lewis" <dko_sp30@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: lewisdick25200@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 02 Dec 2005 14:54:23 +0000
Subject: FROM CHARLES LEWIS-PLEASE URGENT


Hello,

Re: collection of fund (US$69.5m) under
special arrangement.

Pardon me if I have offended you by contacting you for
such a big transaction through an ordinary letter which makes it
suspicious considering the type of fraud proposals moving around
the world today. However, I was advised to explain this
transaction to you on face to face meeting.

I could not do this because of the situation in the
world today not being sure of your reaction.
I am Mr.Charles Lewis, a consultant and broker from
London. I was hired by a Japanese business man to broker an
investment deal between himself and oil company in Venezuela.

This deal was executed in January 1997 and matured for termination in
2001.


On maturity, the Japanese businessman and the oil firm decided to
terminate the investment in cash to avoid payment of investment tax which
amounted to several millions of U.S dollars to the America internal revenue service
(IRS). A special arrangement was made between a top Japanese banker
working with Japanese bank in New York, the oil company and the businessman to
terminate the investment in cash payment under a fictitious name with
an arrangement to change it latter with a power of attorney which they
prepared and handed over to the top banker.

I was directly involved, well paid and mandated to organize and
carry out the deal. All the cash was withdrawn in august 2001 and
transported to Europe by direct bank vault to vault
delivering to a private diplomatic storage in Europe
for safe keeping pending the collection. The real content of the boxes
were not declared to the storage as it was delivered as
personal family treasure and diamonds. The code for the storage, secret
codes for the opening of the boxes and its keys were all handed over to
me.

Mr. Takashi the New York business man was planning to
go to Europe by mid of November 2001 with me for the collection when
the unexpected happened in September 11th attack on the twin tower which
claim his life and that of the top banker. This left me
devastated and confused as I have not yet handed over the deposit
details to the owner and the power of attorney prepared fore the change which was signed
was still with the banker in his office which was also lost. It was
agreed with the storage that the consignment would be collect on or
before 12 months from the date of delivery.

Since due date the diplomatic storage manager has been calling me to
bring or tell the owner to come over for collection. My friend, since then I
have been looking for any reliable person to collect these consignment under
special and well negotiated arrangement until I got your email contact.
All the needed secret code and identification and
collection are all with me.

Be rest assured that this transaction has
been well organized, 100% safe, legal, risk free and should be kept
very confidential. You can contact me on my direct telephone number
+448717205780

Expecting to hear from you soon.

Regards,

Charles Lewis

 


 

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