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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.Paul Nwakor" <mr40peter@yahoo.co.uk> (may be fake)
Reply-To: poul_nwakor3@yahoo.co.in
Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 14:08:30 +0000
Subject: From Mr.Paul Nwakor

Dear Friend, First,

I must apologise to you for using this medium to communicate
about this transaction, though it is my great pleasure in
writing you this letter on behalf of my colleague and myself.
I am Mr.Paul Nwakor the Director of Bill and
Exchange at the Foreign Remittance Department in the bank where
I work. I am writing to you this urgent proposal following the
impressive information about you through one of my friends who
runs a consultancy firm. Though, I did not disclose to him the
nature of my proposal to you to avoid any leakage. My colleague
and I have decided to contact you on a business transaction that
will be very beneficial to both of us at the end. I would be brief
and direct to ensure you understand everything properly.

In my department we discovered an abandoned Sum of $13.7M USD
(Thirteen Million, Seven Hundred Thousand US Dollars), in an account
that belongs to one of our foreign customers, an American by name:
Mr. John Schelpert who died along with his wife and other passengers
in EgyptAir Flight 990 - October 31, 1999. Since we got information
about his untimely death, the fund has been dormant in his account
with my Bank without any claim, we have been expecting his next of
kin 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 and the person must be a foreigner as indicated in our
banking guidelines.

Before our observation in this development, we discovered that the
owner of the account 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. The Banking law and guideline here stipulates
that if such money remained unclaimed after Six (6) years, the money
will be transfered into the Bank treasury account as unclaimed fund.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I and my junior colleague
in the bank now decided to make this businness proposal to you and
release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased
for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it
and we do not want this money to go into the Bank treasury as unclaimed Bill.

Meanwhile the whole arrangement to put claim over these fund as the
bonafide next of kin to the deceased and transfer this money to a
foreign account has been put in place. Directives and needed information
will be relayed to you as soon as you indicate your interest and willingness
to assist us and also benefit from this great business opportunity. We could
have done this deal on our own, but because of our position in this country
operating a local account would eventually raise an eye brow on my side during
the time of transfer because I work in this bank.

Mr.Paul Nwakor



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