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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: Don Newport <don@dnewport.orangehome.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 17:02:50 +0100 (CET)
Subject: My name is Don Newport and I work with the mining finance debt. Of
Standard Bank of London www.sbl.co.uk


My name is Don Newport and I work with the mining finance debt. Of Standard Bank of London www.sbl.co.uk

I am contacting you concerning a deceased customer regarding an investment he placed under our bank management some years ago. I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this mail.

We are contacting you independently of our investigations and no one is informed of this communication. I would like to intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you. We had a foreign customer who deposited a huge sum of money with our bank, who was later declared dead of a heart attack in Cannes, South of France.

Before his death, he had with our bank the sum of US$26.5M (TWENTY-SIX MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED SATES DOLLARS). Immediately after his death our bank immediately launched an investigation into possible surviving next of kin to alert about the situation and also to come forward to claim his estate/funds. If you are familiar with private banking affairs, those who patronize our services usually prefer anonymity, but also some levels of detachment from conventional processes.

In his bio-data form, he listed no next of kin. In the field of private banking, opening an account with us means no one will know of its existence, accounts are rarely held under a name; depositors use numbers and codes to make the accounts anonymous. This bank also gives the choice for depositors of having their mail sent to them or held at the bank itself, ensuring that there are no traces of the account and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of kin. Private banking clients apart from not nominating next of kin also usually in most cases leave wills in our care, in this case; the deceased died without a testate.

In line with our internal processes for account holders who have passed away, we instituted our own investigations in good faith to determine who should have right to claim the estate. This investigation has for the past months been unfruitful.

On this note, I and some officials who prefer not to be mentioned would want you to apply to this bank as the next of kin.

We agreed that 40% of the money will be for you as a foreign partner, while the rest will be for me and my partners here in the bank.

We will want you to know that this business is hitch free and that you should not welcome any fear as the whole required arrangement has been made including all the entire legal documents.

I will advise you to please contact me on this email: donnewport@stanbnk.com as soon as you get this email for further informations.PLEASE DO NOT CALL MY OFFICE NUMBER.
As soon as I get your response I will forward you my contact telephone number for easy communication.

Please, again, note I am a family man; I have a wife and children. I send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences, but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. This is the one truth I have learnt from my private banking clients. Do not betray my confidence.

If we can be of one accord, I assure you that you that everything will be fine.

I await your prompt response.

Regards,

MR. Don Newport
Reply me: donnewport@stanbnk.com



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