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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: "Mr. David Bryan" <bobjestes@excite.com>
Reply-To: davidbryan_91@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2006 21:50:37 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Assistance required


Good Day, I am Mr. David Bryan, staff of Kleinwort Benson in the UK. I am contacting you concerning a deceased customer and an investment he placed under our banks management four years ago. I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential.I am contacting you to solicit for your assistance to help me safeguard funds amounting to Twelve million United States dollars left by one of our deceased customers whose relatives could not be traced as he died along with his family members. You will be presented as the Next-Of-Kin to the deceased to enable our institution transfer the money to you as the legitimate next of Kin. My proposal: I now seek your permission to present you as a next of kin to the deceased, as all documentations will be carefully worked out to make you the beneficiary to the funds: US$12,000,000.00 (Twelve Million United states Dollars) ; I am prepared to place you in a position to instruct The security Firm to release the
deposit to you as the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money with you. That is: I will simply nominate you as the next of kin, armed with all the necessary documents officially nominating you, and have them release the deposit to you. We share the proceeds 60% for me, and 40% for you. I will give you more details about the transaction when I receive your affirmative response at my secured Email address. Looking forward to hearing from you soonest. I await your response. Mr. David Bryan.

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