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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: "mark mbeki" <rubenchiz_2003@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2005 18:01:31 -0500
Subject: Need Your Urgent Reply ...

Dear Sir/ MAdam,

Do not be surprised about receiving this confidential proposal from somebody
you do not know. It is as a result of the urgency and nature of the business
that made me contact you in this manner. I am Mr. Ruben Chizea, an attorney
from Durban, South Africa and a personal attorney to late Mr. John
Cuthbertson, (hereinafter referred to as my “client”) an expatriate and an
oil/mining contractor who used to work in my country back in Africa as an
Engineering Consultant with South African mining Corporation. On the 31st of
January 2000, my client died from an air crash aboard Alaska Airline flight
261 that crashed into the Pacific Ocean on January
31,2000.(http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/index.html).
My client used to be a close friend of my late father who also died four
years ago. Shortly, before my client’s death, he had instructed me to
prepare his WILL but without a named beneficiary yet. He had already signed
the WILL and was contemplating on making his pet dog the beneficiary since
he had no wife nor children before he died from the air crash. Since that
unfortunate incident, I have made several enquiries to locate any of my
client's relatives to facilitate repatriation of his estate from Africa. My
efforts up till date proved unsuccessful. His personal house in the capital
city Pretoria has already been confiscated by the government.

The reason for contacting you is to assist me urgently in repatriating the
sum of Twenty five million six hundred and U.S. Dollars (US$25,600,000) left
behind by my client before his death. This amount of money is kept in safe
custody with a security/finance company operating between Africa and Europe.
The security company has issued me a notice to provide the next-of- kin of
my client or have the money declared unserviceable and returned to the South
African government.

I cannot claim this money myself because of my position as the Attorney to
the deceased and the Security company is aware of this situation. Since I
have been unsuccessful in locating any of his relatives for five years now,
I seek your consent for a confidential co-operation with me so that I can
present you as the next-of-kin to my client – Mr. John Cuthbertson for the
money to be paid to you as the beneficiary. Note that this transaction is
simple and risk free because I will provide you with expert legal services,
documentations and transaction codes that will guarantee the successful
execution of this deal with the security/finance company. All I require is
your honesty and serious co-operation to enable us see the deal through. I
guarantee you that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that
will protect you from any breach of the law. I wish to point out that after
the claims, I would want 20% of this money to be shared among charity
organizations, while the remaining 80% is shared equally between us.

You will agree with me that It is a better judgement for us to claim this
money and put into profitable/peaceful use than allowing it to be
confiscated and divided amongst the corrupt government in South Africa. If
you are capable of handling this transaction, please reply via my email
address: steparkersss@yahoo.ie with your full names and telephone number to
enable us discuss and proceed accordingly.

Yours faithfully,

Mr. Ruben Chizea.
Email: steparkersss@yahoo.ie
Solicitor.


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