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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_newport1@mail2world.com" <don_newport1@mail2world.com>
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2006 06:16:11 -1000
Subject: FROM DON NEWPORT

My name is Don Newport and I work with the mining
finance debt. Of Standard Bank of London www.sbl.co.uk
http://www.sbl.co.uk/MiningMetals/Contacts.aspx

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: Donnewport01@mail.nu
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 two 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: Donnewport01@mail.nu


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