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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam

• About the 419 (Advance Fee) scam
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• Phone numbers used by 419 scammers
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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.

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:

• The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
  • "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
  • "a security company " (this will cost you money - that's what the scam is about)
  • "trunk box" (a common phrase found in 419 scams)
  • "million united states dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
• This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
  
• This email lists mobile phone numbers. Use of such numbers is typical for scams because they allow criminals to conceal their true location. They can receive calls in an Internet cafe from where they send you emails, while pretending to be in some office.
  • +447031908353 (UK, redirects to a mobile phone in another country)

Fraud email example:

From: "Karen Gupta" <guptakar@yahoo.co.uk> (may be fake)
Reply-To: guptakar@voila.fr
Date: Sun, 25 Feb 2007 03:00:02 -0800
Subject: PRIVATE ENQUIRY FROM UK.

25/02/2007.


Dear Sir/Madam,
I am Karen Gupta, and I am mailing from London, United Kingdom. I am the International operations manager of a Security Company based here in the United Kingdom.

I am contacting you in confidence and with the sincere hope that we can find a common ground to cooperate on this issue that is of great importance to me and a matter of urgency.
However, if this mail hurts your moral values and sensibilities, I sincerely ask for your forgiveness.

I write to request for your co-operation with me in order to redeem a
Deposit (Metal Trunk Box) containing US$7M (Seven Million United States Dollars) made by one Dr. Selma Marques de Oliveira, a citizen of Brazil, in the year 2002.
She made the deposit in our branch here in UK, as she was then a member of the Petrobras permanent delegation to the International Petroleum Exchange here in the UK.

By early 2004, she was posted to Petrobras oil exploration outfit in Brunei, and she requested that our company move the deposited item to our office in South East Asia. (Exact location I would tell you in my next email)

When her 2004 payment for storage expired, our company sent numerous correspondences and reminders to notify her, but there was no word from her.
By early 2006, after extensive enquiries, we got reliable information that Dr. Selma Margues de Oliveira, was vacationing in Phuket Thailand with her two adopted children when the Tsunami struck in December 26, 2004. Unfortunately, none of them survived it.

We turned our search to try to locate her other family members such as parents, brothers or sisters, or even relatives with same surname, but unfortunately, it happened that she was the only daughter, never married, and her parents died about a decade ago. So it became clear that she left no relatives behind.

It is a standard practice that deposits are forfeited after three years of the death of the depositor, if the next of kin does not come forward to lay claim to the deposit. Now it is very clear that no one would come forward for this poor woman's deposit. This year would make it three years since she died. The board of directors are simply waiting for the appropriate time to pounce on the deposit.

So this is why I am pleading for your assistance in claiming this deposit before it ends up in the dirty pockets of a few gullible members of the board of directors and top management of the company.

I beg to work with you to claim this money and share it mutually among ourselves.

I have access to the deposit file, and I would make copies of the deposit documents and send to you immediately to authenticate your position as the distant relative and close confidant of the late client.
Your Nationality, religion, name and gender would not be a problem. I am working in this company and I know how it works.

Presenting copies of the deposit documents automatically makes you the bonafide next of kin and beneficiary of the deposit.
The fund/deposit would be released to you immediately, after brief but strict legal procedures.

Please do acknowledge receipt of this letter and your interest as soon as possible.
And do let me have your profile, including you full name, phone and fax number urgently.

Yours sincerely,

Karen Gupta
Tel: +447031908353
Email: guptakar@voila.fr

Anti-fraud resources:

• What can you do when you receive 419 spam