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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: "PETER SMITH" <sm_peter1997@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 03:29:30 +0000
Subject: AWAITING URGENT REPLY

Greetings to you

Before I introduce myself, I wish to inform you that this letter is not a hoax
mail and I urge you to treat it serious. This letter must come to you as a big
surprise, but I believe it is only a day that people meet and become great
friends and business partners.

My name is Mr. Prince Smith Peter the present branch Manager of a bank here in
Nigeria. I write you this proposal in good faith, believing that I can trust
you with the information I am about to reveal to you. Like I said, I have a
transaction that will benefit both of us, as your assistance is required as a
foreigner.I use to head the Accounts department Union Bank of Nigeria Plc head
office, but last December.

I was asked to take position of a Manager of our branch in Nigeria who passed
on, so that was how I became the present Manager and discovered a fortune.As
I resumed duty, I discovered an account with total sum of $9.7million dollars
million that has not been operated on for the past 6 years. From my
investigation,I found out that this account belongs to one Late Mr. Morris
Thompson an American great industrialist and a resident of Alaska, who
unfortunately lost his life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261
which crashed on January 31 2000, including his wife and only daughter. You
shall read more news about the crash on visiting this site which I got during
my investigation

http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/

The account is escrow call account, a secret type of account in my bank and no
other person knows about this account or any thing concerning it,the account
has no other beneficiary. I have kept a close monitoring of the account since
then and nobody has come forward to ask about the money as next of kin to the
late Mr. Morris Thompson, meaning that no one is aware of the account.

I cannot directly take out this money without the help of a foreigner and that
is why I am contacting you for an assistance to claim the funds and share it
with me. As the Manager of my bank branch,I have the power to influence the
release of the funds to any foreigner that comes up as the next of kin to the
account, with the correct information concerning the account, which I shall
give you. I am seeking your co-operation to present you as the next of kin to
the account, so that my bank head quarters will release the funds to you.
There is practically no risk involved, the transaction will be executed under
a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of law. If you
accept to work with me, I want you to state how you wish us to share the
funds in percentage, so that both parties will be satisfied. Contact me as
soon as you receive this message if you feel we can work together,so we can
go over the details.

Contact me via this mail
Email: sm_peter1997@yahoo.co.uk

Full Name:.............................
Tellphone:............................
Nationality:...........................
Occupation:..........................
Email................................

Thanking you in advance and may God bless you.Please,treat with utmost
confidentiality. I wait your urgent response.


Regards,
Mr. Prince Smith Peter


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