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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: Parker <ptpakas@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: ptrkpka@terra.es
Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2006 07:55:12 +0900 (JST)
Subject: Reply

Patrick Parker
EMAIL: [ptrkpka@yahoo.com.hk]
Thursday, 30 November, 2006

Dear Friend,

Thank you for giving me your time, it is of great importance for you to take care and understand every word which I have written down below; please be patient and read my email.

I am a staff of a prime bank here in Hong Kong attached in Private Banking Services. I am contacting you in-respect of an investment portfolio placed under our banks management; as a matter of fact it was 3 years ago. I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail private and also to kindly respect the integrity of the information you come accross as a result of this email. I contacted you independent of my bank's 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 2000, a customer came to our bank to engage in business discussions with our Private Banking Services Department. He informed us that he had a financial portfolio of 11.37 million United States Dollars, which he wished to have us invest on his behalf. I was the officer assigned to him; I made numerous suggestions in line with my duties as the de- facto chief operations officer of the Private Banking Services Department, especially given the volume of funds he wished to put into our bank. We met on numerous occasions prior to any investments being placed, and however I encouraged him to consider various growth funds with prime ratings.

Based on my advice, we invested the money around various opportunities and made attractive margins for our first months of operation, the accrued profit with interest included, stood at over 13.2 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 2001, he asked that the funds be liquidated because he needed to make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in Europe. He directed that I liquidate the funds and have it deposited in cash with a finance firm in Europe. I informed him that our 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 borders has become especially
strict since the incidents of 9/11. I contacted my affiliate in Europe and had the funds available in mainland Europe, I undertook all the processes and made sure I followed his precise instructions and had the funds deposited in a security consultancy firm, this 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 his instructions, the money was deposited; he 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 February 25th 2002. In June last year, we got a call from the security firm informing us of 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, and I could not understand why he had not come forward to claim his deposit. I made futile efforts to locate him, and immediately passed the task of locating him to the internal investigations department of our bank. Four days later, a confirmed information came in, that he was dead.

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. Our bank also gives the choice to depositors of having their mail 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.In this case the subject died intestate.[WITHOUT WILL]

My official capacity dictates that I trace his next of kin as regards his estate, i am the only person to supervise the investigation and the only person to receive the results of the investigation. What this means, with you being a foreigner, I have considered the fact 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. According to practice, the finance firm will by the end of this financial year send an official request for statements of claim to our bank, failing to receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to our bank. This will result in the money entering our bank’s accounting system and the portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the Private Banking Services Department. This will not happen if I have my way.

You should have begun by now to put together the general direction of what I propose. There is 11,991,674 deposited in a finance firm for my late customer, I alone have the deposit details and the finance firm 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 deceased customer concluded when I sent the funds to the finance firm, all outstanding interactions in relation to the file are just customer services and due process. The finance firm has no single idea of what’s the history or nature of the deposit, they are simply awaiting instructions to release the deposit to any party that comes forward, and this is the situation.

My proposal is to have you as the next of kin and instruct the finance firm to release the deposit to you; afterwards we share the proceeds 60% for me and 40% for you. All expenses shall fully be covered by me, as i am very much aware of scams and will not require that you make any upfront payments of your funds whatsoever.

I would have gone ahead to ask the funds be released to me, but that would have drawn a straight line to me and my involvement in claiming the deposit, but you as a foreigner would easily pass as the beneficiary with the rights to claim, I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you in a few days. I will simply inform my bank of the final closing of the file relating to the customer, I will then officially communicate with the finance firm and instruct them to release the deposit to you; with these two things: all is done.

I send you this email not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences might be, but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. Do not betray my confidence. I am a family man and this is an occasion to provide them with new opportunities. 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 will bless you and plant you into the center of relevance in my life, let’s share the blessing.

Contact me through email [ptrkpka@yahoo.com.hk] and provide your details such as, full Name, Age, Address and direct Contact phones, to enable me initiate the process towards a conclusion within five working days. I do not want any official direct link between you and me. It is necessary to inform you that under no condition should you contact me via official channels; I will simply deny knowing you and about this project. My official lines are not secure 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.

If we can be of one accord, I shall have the pleasure of meeting you in less than a week from today, after this task must have been completed.

I await your response.

Yours Sincerely,

Patrick.





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