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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: "THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION" <uno@unospecialduties.org> (may be fake)
Reply-To: revfrankclark@katamail.com
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 05:32:32 +0000
Subject: YOUR AWATNG PAYMENT..

THE UNITED NATIONS ORGANIZATION
In Conjunction with the International Monetary Fund
WORLD BANK FACT-FINDING & SPECIAL DUTIES OFFICE
DAKAR, SENEGAL.
TEL : + 221 4409966
Email: revfrankclark@katamail.com

Dear Sir/Madam.

I am Revd. Father Frank Clark, a senior staff with the World Bank
fact finding & special duties office. I am writing you this letter
in respect to some outstanding payments due to you.
I and the chief security officer (CSO) of this organization have
arranged with an officer in computer section engineer Peter Cliff to
bring out part of your total pending payment sum amounting to US$10
million. Why we did this is because according to information
gathered from the bank’s/security computer, you have been waiting
for a long time to receive your money without success. As I found
out that you have almost met all the statutory requirements in
respect of your pending payment, the problem we noticed with you
is that of interest groups.
A lot of people are interested in your payment and those people are
merely doing paper works with you and that explains why you receive fax
and phone messages from different people everyday. Also we found out that
some of the officials of the parastatals have been extorting a lot of
money from you with the pretext of helping you receive your money. I
can assure you that this may last for years yet nothing happens if you
do not do away with those officers that you call your partners. And
for security reasons do not tell anybody that you have your money
until you receive cash at your door step.
The money is in a security-proof box weighing 75kg. Yesterday we
went to four courier companies to make arrangements on how to ship
them by courier to you. Dhl, ems, FedEx, ups all said that they must
open the boxes for inspection by the customs before shipment. This is
something we want to avoid because the box is padded with synthetic
nylon and to open it, you have to cut the pad before you will meet
the button that you will press to open the dial code-lock. There is no
way you can open the box and be able to close it again because it was
padded with the aid of a machine.
We told the courier services that the box contained film materials
and when opened will spoil the materials. We did not declare money
because courier does not carry money.
Today a friend of mine who is diplomat disclosed to me that there is
a security courier service they use to send diplomatic materials and
information from one country to another. It has diplomatic immunity
and the consignment cannot be checked by any customs anywhere in the world.
I have spoken to the officials of the security courier service and
concluded shipping arrangement with them, which they will commence
as soon as i have your go ahead order. The diplomat will help me so
we do not have any problem. We have concluded that you must donate Five
Hundred Thousand United States dollars (US$500,000.00) to any
charity organisation I designate as soon as you receive your money.
To this effect, you will send us a promissory note for Five Hundred
Thousand United States dollars (US$500,000.00) along with your address for
sending the box by courier.
Please maintain topmost secrecy as it may cause a lot of problems if
found out that we are using this way to help you. Do not ever tell
anybody about this until you have your money. I want to help you
because something in me is telling me that you are an honest person.
When you conclude this and you send our promise, we will help to
ship the final part of your money to you.
God be with us as we wait for your reply on email

Tel: 00221-440-9966 .Please do not fail to call me ASAP.

Yours faithfully,
Revd. Father Frank Clark.



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