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

Fraud email example:

From: Mr Jonathan Mann <newmann_newmann@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: jonathanmann62@netscape.net
Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:58:19 +0100
Subject: A LUCRATIVE BUSINESS PROPOSAL/URGENT ASSISTANCE


Dear Sir/Madam
I am a member of staff of Natwest Bank here in the United Kingdom. I am
writing following an opportunity in my office that will be of immense
benefit to both of us.
In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of £23.5million British
Pounds Sterling (Twenty three million five hundred thousand British Pounds)
in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers Late Mr.
Morris Thompson an American who unfortunately lost his life in the plane
crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January 31 2000,
including his wife and only daughter. You shall read more about the crash on
visiting this website.
http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/ and Since we got
information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin or
relatives to come over and claim his money because the Bank cannot release
the funds unless somebody applies for it as next of kin or relation to the
deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.
Unfortunately I learnt that his supposed next of kin being his only daughter
died along with him in the plane crash leaving nobody with the knowledge of
this fund behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that I
and two other officials in this department now decided to do business with
you and release the money to you as the next of kin or beneficiary of the
funds for safety keeping and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming
for it and we do not want this money to go back into Government treasury as
unclaimed funds.
We agreed that 20% of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, while
the balance will be for me and my colleagues. I will visit your country for
the disbursement according to the percentages indicated above once this
money gets into your account. Please be honest to me and trust is our
watchword in this transaction.
Note this transaction is confidential and risk free. As soon as you receive
this mail you should contact me by return mail whether or not you are
willing to enter into this deal. In the event you are not interested, I
sincerely ask that you disregard this email and tell no one about it. I am
very careful on truncating my banking career should you mention this to
someone else. I hope you can be trusted in this regard.
Please note that all necessary arrangement for the smooth release of these
funds to you has been finalised. We will discuss much in details when I do
receive your response.
Please in your response include your telephone number and fax number for a
better communication between us.
Best regards
Jonathan Mann
jonathanmann62@netscape.net

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