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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.Greg" <grofice@libero.it> (may be fake)
Reply-To: groffice@liberi.it
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2006 09:54:02 +0000
Subject: Greg

Good day,

I am Mr.Greg Stevenson, staff of Kleinwort Benson. I am contacting you
concerning a deceased customer and an investment he placed under our
banks management three 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.
I am contacting you independently of our investigation 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. In the year
2002, the subject matter; came to our bank to engage in business
discussions with our private banking division. He informed us that he had
a financial portfolio of Six Million United States dollars, which he
wished to have us turn over (invest) on his behalf.

I was the officer assigned to his case, I made numerous suggestions in
line with my duties as the de-facto chief operations officer of the
private banking sector then, especially given the volume of funds he
wished to put into our bank. We met on numerous occasions prior to any
investments being placed.I encouraged him to consider various growth
funds with prime ratings. The favored route in my advice to customers
is to start by assessing data on 6000 traditional stocks and bond managers
and 2000 managers of alternative investments. Based on my advice, We spun
the money around various opportunities and made attractive margins for our
first months of operation,
the accrued profit and interest stood at this point at over Two million
United States Dollars, this margin was not the full potential of the fund
but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments.

In mid 2003, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed to
make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in Helsinki- Finland.
He directed that I liquidate the funds and deposit it with a security
firm. I informed him that my Bank would have to make special
arrangements to have this done and in order not to circumvent due
process, the bank would have to make a 9.5 % deduction from the funds
to cater for banking and statutory charges. He complained about the
charges but later came around when I explained to him the complexities of
the task he was asking of us.

Cash movement across boarders has become especially strict since the
incidents of 9/11. I contacted my affiliate and made the funds
available to the security firm. I undertook all the processes and made
sure I followed his precise instructions to the letter and had the funds
deposited with the security firm. The Security Firm is a specialist
private firm that accepts deposits from high net worth individuals and
blue chip corporations that handle valuable products or undertake
transactions that need immediate access to cash. This small and highly
private organization is familiar especially to the highly placed and
well-connected organizations. In line with instructions, the money was
deposited with the security firm.
The deceased told me he wanted the money there in anticipation of his
arrival from Norway later that week. This was the last communication we
had, this transpired around 25th of November 2003.In June last
year, we got a call from the security firm informing us about the
inactivity of that particular portfolio.

This was an astounding position as far as I was concerned, given the
fact that I managed the private banking sector I was the only one who
knew about the deposit at the security firm, and I could not understand
why the deceased had not come forward to claim his deposit. I made
futile efforts to locate the deceased. I immediately passed the task of
locating him to the internal investigations department of Kleinwort
Benson.Four days later, information started to trickle in, apparently
our client was dead. A person who suited his description was declared
dead of a heart attack in canne, in Southern part of France.We were
soon enough to identify the body and cause of death was confirmed.
The 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.
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 to 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. We have
scanned every continent and used our private investigation affiliate
companies to get to the root of the problem. It is this investigation that
resulted in my being furnished with your details as a possible relative of
the deceased.

My present official capacity as the Head of Finance dictates that I am
the only party to supervise the investigation and the only party to
receive the results of the investigation. What this means,is that our
dear late fellow died with no known or identifiable family member. This
leaves me as the only person with the full picture of what the
prevailing situation is in relation to the deposit and the late
beneficiary of the deposit.

What I wish to relate to you will smack of unethical practice but I want
you to understand something.
It is only an outsider to the banking world who finds the
internal politics of the banking world aberrational. The world of private
banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for those that occupy
certain offices and oversee certain portfolios. You should have begun by
now to put together the general direction of what I propose. There is Six
Million dollars deposited in a security firm, I alone have the deposit
details and they will release the deposit to no one unless I instruct them
to do so. I alone know of the existence of this deposit for as far as my
Bank is concerned.

The transaction with our late customer concluded when I sent the funds
to the security firm, all outstanding interactions in relation to the
file are just customer services and due process. The security Firm has
no sign or idea,history or nature of the deposit. They are
simply awaiting instructions to release the deposit to any party that
comes forward. This is the situation. This bank has spent great amounts
of money trying to track this man's family, they have investigated for
months and have found no family. The investigation has come to an end.

This is what i want to do,I now seek your permission to present you as a
next of kin to the deceased, as all documentations will be carefully
worked to make you the beneficiary to the funds $6,000 000 00 (Six Million
United states Dollar),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 and have
them release the deposit to you. We share the proceeds 60/40.I would have
gone ahead to ask that the funds be released to me, but that would have
drawn a straight line to me and my involvement in claiming the deposit.

I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you within a few
days. I will simply inform Kleinwort Benson of the final closing of the
file relating to the deceased. I will then officially communicate with
The Security Firm and instruct them to release the deposit to you. With
these two things: all is done. The alternative would be for us to have
The Security Firm direct the funds to another bank with you as account
holder. This way there will be no need for you to think of receiving
the money from The Security Company. We can fine-tune this based on our
interactions am aware of the consequences of this proposal. I ask that
if you find no interest in this project that you should discard this
mail. I ask that you do not be vindictive and destructive. If my offer
is of no appeal to you, delete this message and forget I ever contacted
you. Do not destroy my career because you do not approve of my
proposal. You may not know this but people like myself who have made
tidy sums out of comparable situations run the whole private banking sector.

I am not a criminal and what I do, I do not find against good
conscience, this may be hard for you to understand, but the dynamics of
my industry dictates that I make this move. Such opportunities only
come ones' way once in a lifetime. I cannot let this chance pass me by,
for once I find myself in total control of my destiny. These chances
won't pass me by. I ask that you do not destroy my chance, if you will
not work with me let me know and let me move on with my life but do not
destroy me. There is a reward for this project and it is a
task well worth undertaking.

I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is from you
refusing to work with me and alerting my bank. I am the only one who
knows of this situation, good fortune has blessed you with a luck that
has planted you into the center of relevance in my life. Let's share
the blessing. If you find yourself able to work with me, contact me
through this email account. If you give me positive signals, I will
initiate this process towards a conclusion. I wish to inform you that
should you contact me via official channels; I will deny knowing you and
about this project. I repeat, I do not want you contacting me through my
official phone lines nor do I want you contacting me through my official
email account. Contact me only through the numbers I will provide for you
and also through this email address. I do not want any direct link between
you and myself. My official lines are not secured lines as they are
periodically monitored to assess our level of customer care in line with
our Total Quality Management Policy.Please observe this instruction
religiously.

Please, again, note that 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 learned from my private banking
clients. Do not betray my confidence.

I awaits your earliest response.
Mr.Greg Stevenson
+447040113412



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