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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: "Vincent Lenda" <vicklenda4@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: vklenda@myway.com
Date: Tue, 13 Dec 2005 22:07:03 +0000
Subject: exclusive

Hello friend,

I am a fiduciary agent with a large clientele base. We had a foreign client
who we helped through our company in depositing a certain sum with an
off-shore bank in the United Kingdom although this client of ours is now
deceased but since then we have not had any body coming for the claims as
the next of kin, a situation I have monitored closely with my position in
the company.

This account has been dormant since 1999 and the treasury department of this
bank has been changing custodian of the account for the last seven (7)
years,without a claimant, having monitored this deposit and managed it over
the years before his death, and all effort to trace any of his next of kin
or relatives has proved abortive hence I seek your consent to present you as
the next of kin to the deceased, so that we can make claim to this account.

At this stage, I need a very reliable confidential and responsible business
minded person who would assist me in the claims of these funds without it
reverting to the authority; I know you might become apprehensive and worried
about how this will be possible.

I will need your response, in order to give you detailed facts and figures
to this account. I have
been able to contact you; based on in formations I retrieved gather from the
last name search database on the web and I will be most willing to go into
partnership with you to see this project completed in earnest. I assure you
there would be no risk to your name or personality.

I can't disclose exclusive data at this stage because I really have to be
very sure of the person I intend dealing with first before giving out such
vital information concerning the above.

Do kindly send your reply with your full names and contact details for
verification purposes; upon this,
I will be able to send you more detail regarding this transaction. If I
don’t hear from you in the next few days I would assume you are not
interested but please if you are do indicate so that I can stop all further
contacts.

So please give it a benefit of doubt and with good faith and trust join me
and I am assuring you now that you will never be disappointed. Please reply
urgently for further details.

I look forward to an excellent business relationship with you

Regards,

Vincent Klenda


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