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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: "Dr. Peter Chang" <p_ch_chG@infohq.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: p_ch_ch@infohq.com
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 2006 02:04:14 +0100
Subject: Need Your Fullest Co-operation.

Dear Sir/Madam,

Before I introduce myself, I wish to inform you that this
letter is not an hoax mail and I urge you to treat it serious.
I would have given you a call, but rather I decided to contact
you via an email to get us acquainted since it is a safer way
of private communication.

I am Dr. Peter Chang a personal account adviser/officer to a
great late industrialist who has an account in one of the top
banks here in Malaysia. During the course of his bank's last
week auditing,it was discovered that since his death no one
has come forward to lay claims to his funds.So the bank issued
me a memo to provide his next of kin or forfeith the funds.It
has been Six years now,since he died in the year 2000 and
nobody has operated on his account.After going through some
old files in my records,I discovered that my late client
died without a [Heir/WILL],hence the money is floating and if
I do not remit this money out urgently it will be forfeited
for nothing as the bank was sold on Monday, 19 September 2005
to another bank.Currently,the present management of the bank
is at the point of finalising all transactions before fully
handling over to the new management which is an added
advantage to perfect this transaction.

These funds will be released to any foreigner with the
accurate information of the account which will be made
known to you immediately you signify your interest to
execute this transaction with me.No other person knows
about this account or anything concerning it as the
account has no other beneficiary and my investigation
proved to me as well that the account is a secret account.
As a matter of fact, I have decided to transfer this money
into a safe foreigner's account abroad for investment but
I don't know any foreigner,hence I am contacting you as a
foreigner because the management of the bank will welcome
any foreigner who has correct information to this account
which I will give you immediately, if you are interested
to do this business with me. I am revealing this to you
with believe in God that you will never let me down in
this business.

Before I will disclose the said amount to you, I must
solicit your strictest confidence in this transaction.This
is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential.I
am sure and have confidence of your ability and reliability
to prosecute a transaction of this great magnitude.I solicit
your assistance to enable us transfer the said funds into
your safe account for onward investment.You can either
provide us with an existing account or to set up a new bank
account immediately to receive this money,even an empty bank
account can serve to receive this money, as long as you will
remain honest to me till the end for this important business
trusting in you and believing that you will never let me down
either now or in future.

As soon as I hear from you, and upon your strong assurance
that you will not let me down once the fund goes into your
account I will then start to process the transfer of the
fund to your account without further delay.

If interested contact me urgently for further details.

Yours Faithfully,

Dr. Peter Chang
Email: p_ch@gawab.com



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