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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. James Ransome" <jamesransome20066@zonai.com>
Reply-To: jamesransome20067@zonai.com
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 17:18:11 +0100
Subject: Please, I need to hear from you now

Barclays Bank Plc
London, United Kingdom
I am Dr. James Ransome , Senior Credit Officer, Barclays Bank Plc London. 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 £12.5million British Pounds Sterling (Twelve Million Five Hundred Thousand British Pounds Sterling) 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/>
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 safe 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.
We agreed that 20% of this money would be for you as foreign partner, while the balance will be for my colleagues and I. We 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 as trust is our watchword in this transaction.
Note that 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 finalized. We will discuss much in details when I do receive your response.
Please in your response include your telephone and fax numbers for a better communication between us.
You can reach me on the email below
Best regards
James Ransome
Email: jamesransome20067@zonai.com



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