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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.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Chris Solomon" <mrchrissolomon05@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: mrchris@gawab.com
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 07:56:05 +0000
Subject: FROM CHRIS SOLOMON

FROM CHRIS SOLOMON
Dearest,

I am Mr Chris Solomon,a manager in the Bills and Exchange at the Foreign
Remittance Department of one of the leading banks in Ghana. I am writing
this letter to ask for your support and cooperation to carry out this
business opportunity in my department.

We discovered an abandoned sum of$12,500,000.00 (Twelve Million Five Hundred
Thousand United States Dollars only) in an account that belongs to one of
our foreign customers who died along with his entire family a wife and two
children in November 1999 in an auto crash.

Since we heard of his death, we have been expecting his next-of-kin to come
over and put claims for his money as the heir,because we cannot release the
fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as the
next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking
guidelines.Unfortunately, neither their family member nor distant relative
has everappeared to claim the said fund.It is in our banking guideline that
if none of the relatives come up to claim this fund after 6years of the
death of the late customer,the fund
will be regarded as an unclaimed bill and will be transferred to the bank's
treasury account.


Upon this discovery, I and other officials in my department have agreed to
make business with you and release the total amount into your account as the
heir of the fund since no one came for it or discovered he maintained
account with our bank,otherwise the fund will be returned to the banks
treasury as unclaimed fund.

We have agreed that our ratio of sharing will be as stated thus;30 % for you
as foreign partner,65 % for us the officials in my department and 5 % for
the settlement of all local and foreign expences incurred by us and you
during the course of this business.

Upon the successful completion of this transfer, I and one of my colleagues
will come to your country and mind our share. It is from our 75% we intend
to import Agricultural Machineries into my country as a way of
recycling the fund.

To commence this transaction,we require you to immediately indicate your
interest by a return e-mail with the following information:

1)Your private telephone and fax number
2.Your full name

Upon the receipt of this,i will inturn get back to you and give you the
mordalities for the bank to approve you as the next of kin.

Note also, this transaction must be kept because of its nature.I look
forward to receiving your prompt
response.Please get back to me at my private email:mrchris@gawab.com

Best Regards

Mr Chris Solomon
Please reply me at my email address:mrchris@gawab.com


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