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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: "Mr. Brendon Hopkins" <brendonhopkins7@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: brendonhopkinsmy@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2006 10:11:02 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Hello


Standard Chartered Bank PLC
1 Aldermanbury Square
London EC2V 7SB
Country Chief Executive Officer:
Private Phone:+447031840416
Mr. Brendon Hopkins.

Dear Sir/Madam

I got your contact email address through a personal research and decided to let you know about this packaged financial transaction that will benefit us. In the Audting department , we discovered an abandoned sum of £26.5million British Pounds Sterling (Twenty Six 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.

Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin or relatves to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it 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 make 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
don't want this money to go back into Government treasury as unclaimed bill.

The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such money remained after five years the money will be transferred into banking treasury as unclaimed funds.We
agreed that 30% of this money will be for you as 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.this transaction is
confidential and risk free.if you are ready to work with us please forward to me the required information below.

(1) Send to me immediately A bank account ( a bank
account with zero credit balance is still ok)
(2) Complete name and address of the Bank
(3) Bank Account Number
(4) Name of Account Holder/Beneficiary
(5) Your address, phone and fax both Mobile

Once you send me the requested information as above, I will initiate the processing of the transfer and in about 5 working days the money will be in your nominated bank
account for us to share in the ratio.This transaction is guaranteed to succeed without any problem. If you agree to assist me by sending me the above requested information, I will give you my complete Details, including phone/ fax etc and any further clarifications you may require. We will discuss much in details when I do receive your response.

Best regards,
Mr.Brendon Hopkins


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