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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Richard Vanmer <ricvanmer227@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: <ricvanmer@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 07:11:00 -0400
Subject: Reply Soon




Hello,

I present you with this business opportunity to participate and note that I will not ask you for your money to invest in this business with me. All monies for this business investment will be provided by me.

My name is Richard Vanmer a gold merchant from Ireland. I have been into the trading of gold and diamonds from Asian and European countries for the most part of my life. For the past year I have not been able to do business, as I was involved in a legal battle with the Irish government that had the Irish government froze my accounts in the UK and Switzerland. At present I cannot leave the country as my international passport has been ceased. I am in a state of disarray but I have faith that I can still do some international business.

I currently have cash in the sum of $855,000 with a bank in the USA. This amount of money is my only hope to build back my gold business. I cannot access this bank account from here in Ireland without causing trouble for myself as the Irish government will find out I still keep foreign accounts without their knowledge.

I am contacting you with a kind spirit to enable us work together in some gold deals I would be partaking in. The role I want you to play is to be a financial agent for the gold deals I will be arranging. As a financial agent you will help me transfer funds from my bank account in the USA to bank accounts of my various buyers I will be providing you. I am willing to pay you 20% of every amount of money you transfer for me. Please note that I will provide all funds for the gold transactions. For the first deal, which can be concluded in the next 5 days, I want you to transfer $41,000 to a bank account in China. Your pay will be $8000 on that deal. I will be willing to close enough deals involving huge amounts of money and I will be starting with small deals.


I actually make enough profits in my gold deals because I buy from very cheap sources (far below prices in the gold market) round the globe and I will be willing to share with you upon negotiation. My connections for delivery and sales are very strong. It will be very nice working with me as we will be in for making big money from my gold deals.

I look forward to hearing from you. Please contact me via email for more details so we can progress.


Regards,
Richard Vanmer.

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