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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.

 

 

Fraud email example:

From: "Kelvin Dan" <kelvindan7@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: kelvindan10@walla.com
Date: Fri, 09 Dec 2005 09:52:36 +0000
Subject: GOOD NEWS

Goodday,

I am Mr.KELVIN DAN, staff of SMITH & WILLIAMSON Private
Banking. I am contacting you concerning a deceased customer
and an investment he placed under our banks management
three years ago.I would respectfully request that you keep
the contents of this mail confidential and respect the
integrity of the information you come by as a result of
this mail.

I contacted you independently of our investigation and no
one is informed of this communication. I would like to
intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of
interest to you.In the year 2000, the subject matter; came
to our bank to engage in business discussions with our
private banking division. He informed us that he had a
financial portfolio of Thirty million united states
dollars,which he wished to have us turn over (invest) on
his behalf.

I was the officer assigned to his case, I made numerous
suggestions in line with my duties as the de-facto chief
operations officer of the private banking sector,
especially given the volume of funds he wished to put into
our bank. We met on numerous occasions prior to any
investments being placed.I encouraged him to consider
various growth funds with prime ratings.

The favored route in my advise to customers is to start by
assessing data on 6000 traditional stocks and bond managers
and 2000 managers of alternative investments. 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
ten million United States Dollars, this margin was not the
full potential of the fund but he desired low risk
guaranteed returns on investments.

In mid 2001, he asked that the money be liquidated because
he needed to make an urgent investment requiring cash
payments in here in the united kingdom. He directed that I
liquidate the funds and deposit it with a security firm. I
informed him that SMITH & WILLIAMSON would have to make
special arrangements to have this done and in order not
tocircumvent due process, the bank would have to make a 9.5
% deduction from the funds to cater for banking and
statutory charges. He complained about the charges but
later came around when I explained to him the complexities
of the task he was asking of us.


Cash movement across boarders has become especially strict
since the incidents of 9/11. I contacted my affiliate and
made the funds available to the security firm. I undertook
all the processes and made sure I followed his precise
instructions to the letter and had the funds deposited with
the security firm. The Security Firm is a specialist
private firm that accepts deposits from high net worth
individuals and blue chip corporations that handle valuable
products or undertake transactions that need immediate
access to cash. This small and highly private organization
is familiar especially to the highly placed and
well-connected organizations. In line with instructions,
the money was deposited with the security firm.The deceased
told me he wanted the money there in anticipation of his
arrival from Norway later that week. This was the last
communication we had, this transpired around 25th February
2003.In June last year, we got a call from the security
firm informing us that the inactivity of that particular
portfolio.

This was an astounding position as far as I was concerned,
given the fact that I managed the private banking sector I
was the only one who knew about the deposit at the security
firm, and I could not understand why the deceased had not
come forward to claim his deposit. I made futile efforts to
locate the deceased. I immediately passed the task of
locating him to the internal investigations department of
SMITH& WILLIAMSON.

Four days later, information started to trickle
in,apparently our client was dead. A person who suited his
description was declared dead of a heart attack in canne,in
Southern part of France.We were soon enough 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 and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of kin.
Private banking clients apart from not nominating next of
kin also usually in most cases leave wills in our care, in
this case; the deceased died without a testate. In line
with our internal processes for account holders who have
passed away, we instituted our own investigations in good
faith to determine who should have right to claim the
estate. This investigation has for the past months been
unfruitful.We have scanned every continent and used our
private investigation affiliate companies to get to the
root of the problem. It is this investigation that resulted
in my being furnished with your details as a possible
relative of the deceased.

My official capacity dictates that I am the only party to
supervise the investigation and the only party to receive
the results of the investigation.What this means, you being
the last batch of names we have considered, is that our
dear late fellow died with no known or identifiable family
member. This leaves me as the only person with the full
picture of what the prevailing situation is in relation to
the deposit and the late beneficiary of the deposit.

According to practice, The Security Firm will by the end of
this financial year broadcast a request for statements of
claim to SMITH & WILLIAMSON,failing to receive viable
claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to
SMITH & WILLIAMSON.This will result in the money entering
the SMITH & WILLIAMSON accounting system and the portfolio
will be out of my hands and out of the private banking
division.

This will not happen if I have my way.What I wish to relate
to you will smack of unethical practice but I want you to
understand something. It is only an outsider to the banking
world who finds the internal politics of the banking world
aberrational. The world of private banking especially is
fraught with huge rewards for those who occupy certain
offices and oversee certain portfolios. You should have
begun by now to put together the general direction of what
I propose.There is Thirty million dollars deposited in a
security firm, I alone have the deposit details and they
will release the deposit to no one unless I instruct them
to do so. I alone know of the existence of this deposit for
as far as SMITH & WILLIAMSON is concerned.

The transaction with our late customer concluded when I
sent the funds to the security firm, all outstanding
interactions in relation to the file are just customer
services and due process. The security Firm has no single
idea of what?s the history or nature of the deposit. They
are simply awaiting instructions to release the deposit to
any party that come forward. This is the situation. This
bank has spent great amounts of money trying to track this
man?s family; they have investigated for months and have
found no family.The investigation has come to an end.

My proposal; you share the same surname With our late
client; I am prepared to place you in a position to
instruct The security Firm 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.
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.I would have gone ahead to ask that the funds be
released to me, but that would have drawn a straight line
to me and my involvement in claiming the deposit. But on
the other hand, you with the same very name as the original
depositor would easily pass as the beneficiary with right
to claim.

I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you
within a few days. I will simply inform the bank of the
final closing of the file relating to the deceased I will
then officially ommunicate with The Security Firm and
instruct them to release the deposit to you. With these two
things: all is done.



The alternative would be for us to have The Security Firm
direct the funds to another bank with you as account
holder. This way there will be no need for you to think of
receiving the money from The Security Company. We can
fine-tune this based on our interactions.I am aware of the
consequences of this proposal. I askthat if you find no
interest in this project that you should discard this mail.
I ask that you do not be vindictive and destructive. If my
offer is of no appeal to you,delete this message and forget
I ever contacted you. Do not destroy my career because you
do not approve of my proposal.You may not know this but
people like myself who have made tidy sums out of
comparable situations run the whole private banking sector.


I am not a criminal and what I do, I do not find against
good conscience,this may be hard for you to understand, but
the dynamics of my industry dictates that I make this move.
Such opportunities only come ones' way once in a lifetime.
I cannot let this chance pass me by, for once I find myself
in total control of my destiny. These chances wont pass me
by. I ask that you do not destroy my chance, if you will
not work with me let me know and let me move on with my
life but do not destroy me. I am a family man and this is
an opportunity to provide them with new opportunities.
There is a reward for this project and it is a task well
worth undertaking.


I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is
from you refusing to work with me and alerting my bank. I
am the only one who knows of this situation, good fortune
has blessed you with a name that has planted you into the
center of relevance in my life.Lets share the blessing.If
you find yourself able to work with me, contact me through
this email account . If you give me positive signals, I
will initiate this process towards a conclusion. I wish to
inform you that should you contact me via official
channels; I will deny knowing you and about this project. I
repeat, I do not want you contacting me through my official
phone lines nor do I want you contacting me through my
official email account.Contact me only through the numbers
I will provide for you and also through this email address.
I do not want any direct link between you and myself. My
official lines are not secured lines as they are
periodically monitored to assess our level of customer care
in line with our Total Quality Management Policy.Please
observe this instruction religiously.

Please,again, note I am a family man, I have a wife and
children. I send you this mail not without a measure of
fear as to what the consequences, but I know within me that
nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and
riches never come easy or on a platter of gold.


This is the one truth I have learned from my private
banking clients. Do not betray my confidence.
I await your response.



Mr.KELVIN DAN



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