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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: "Curtis Edwards" <curtisedwards1950@hotmail.com>
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2007 14:19:54 +0100
Subject: I am Mr.Curtis Edwards, staff of SMITH & WILLIAMSON

Good day,

I am Mr.Curtis Edwards, staff of SMITH & WILLIAMSON
Private Banking based in the United Kingdom. I am
contacting you concerning a deceased customer and an
investment she 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 contacted 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 2000,
the subject matter; came to our bank to engage in
business discussions with our private banking
division. She informed us that she had a financial
portfolio of Thirty million united states dollars,
which she wished to have us turn over (invest) on her
behalf. I was the officer assigned to this client, I
made numerous suggestions in line with my duties as the
de-facto chief operations officer of the private
banking sector, especially given the volume of funds
the client wished to put into our bank.

\

In mid 2001, she asked that the money be liquidated
because she needed to make an urgent investment
requiring cash payments here in the United Kingdom.
She directed that I liquidate the funds and deposit it
with a security firm. I informed her that SMITH &
WILLIAMSON 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. She complained about the charges but later
came around when I explained to her the complexities
of the task she 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 her 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.

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 her deposit. I made futile efforts to locate the
deceased. and immediately passed the task of locating
her to the internal investigations department of
SMITH & WILLIAMSON. Four days later, information
started to trickle in, apparently
our client was dead. A person who suited her
description was declared dead of a heart attack in
Monaco, 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 her 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 her bio-data form, she 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 official capacity
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, you
being the last batch of names we have considered, 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. According to practice, The
Security Firm will by the end of this financial quater
broadcast a request for statements of claim to SMITH
& WILLIAMSON, failing to receive viable claims they
will most probably revert the deposit back to SMITH &
WILLIAMSON. This will result in the money entering the
SMITH & WILLIAMSON accounting system and the portfolio
will be out off my hands and out of the private banking division.

My proposal; 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 in half.,That is: I will simply
nominate
you as the next of kin and have them release the
deposit to you. We share the proceeds 50/50.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 the bank 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.


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 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 await
your response via my private e-mail address;




Curtis Edwards
curtisedwards1950@hotmail.com
Private Banking based in the United Kingdom

_________________________________________________________________
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