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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: "The Heritage Trust Group" <gerrardhaskins@zonai.com>
Date: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 18:06:22 +0100
Subject: Warm greetings!

The Heritage Trust Group,
8,Caledonia Place,
St Helier,
Jersey JE4 9YL
Channel Islands.
Email: gerrardhaskins@britpost.com <mailto:gerrardhaskins@britpost.com>
Warm greetings!
I am Gerrard Haskins, Senior Credit Officer, Heritage Trust Group. I am writing following an opportunity in my office that will be of immense benefit to both of us.
In my department we discovered the sum of £12.5 Million British Pounds Sterling (Twelve Million Five Hundred Thousand British Pounds Sterling) in a Trust 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. Please check the following website for further reference:
<http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/>
Since his death, we have been expecting his next of kin or relation 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 financial guidelines.
Unfortunately we 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 these funds behind for the claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that two other officials in this department and I 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 do not want this money to go back into Government treasury as unclaimed bill.
We agreed that 20% of the funds would be for you as foreign partner, 10% would be given to charity while the balance will be for my colleagues and I. We will visit your country upon conclusion for the disbursement according to the percentages indicated above once the funds are safely deposited in your account. Please be honest with us as trust is our watchword in this transaction.
As soon as you receive this email you should contact me by return email 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 hope you can be trusted in this regard.
Please, note that all necessary arrangements for the smooth release of these funds to you have been finalized. We will discuss much in details when I do receive your response via any of the contacts as given above.
Please in your response include your telephone and fax numbers for a better communication between us to my email address : gerrardhaskins@britpost.com
Yours truly,
Gerrard Haskins





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