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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: Martin Bruce <mwbruce01@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: m_bruce1012@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 14:44:55 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Re: Contacting You.


Gooday To You,
Greetings. I am Mr Martin .W. Bruce, a United Kingdom Government auditor and I work in the International operation department in a Bank here in UK. My purpose of contacting you is that I am looking for a Reliable partner in a foreign country to place as the next of kin to a dormant account that have not been operated for years in my bank with a total sum of £15,000,000 (Fifteen Million Pounds Sterling) and on further discreet investigation I also discovered that the account holder has long since passed away (dead) leaving no beneficiary to the account.I contacted you because you are a foreigner and i will provide to you the necessary claim documents the bank will require from you in other to claim this fund including the details information of the account in my next mail .i will inform you on what to do if you are going to assure me that you will not betray me and my family with this fund in your possession so as to enable me to start the paper work immediately without
further delay.I will also like you to take a close look in my family website www.martins.com. I have a little family of four, My wife claudia and hailey and brooke.Keep this business withing your self for security and safe reasons.Thanks as I 'm in anticipation of your favourable response.Have a pleasant day.

Sincerely
Mr.Martin.W.Bruce


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