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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: GRACE WILLIAMS <grcwilliams00060@hotmail.fr>
Reply-To: <gwilliamsg8@excite.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2007 16:51:11 +0100
Subject: How are you?



ATTENTION: Dear,





I MAKE THIS APPEAL WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT ANY FACTS OR OPINION
EXPRESSED BY ME ARE GIVING IN CONFIDENCE AND SOLELY FOR YOUR PERSONAL
INFORMATION AND USE.





I am Mrs. Grace Williams, the manager of bill and exchange at the
foreign remittance department of my Bank. In my department I discovered
an abandoned sum of US$8.5M,(Eight Million, Five Hundred Thousand US
Dollars) with account number 14-2558-5976 that belongs to one of our
foreign customers who died along with his wife and only daughter in a
plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight number 261 which crashed on 31
January, 2000. You shall read more about the crash on visiting this
site http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/ the owner
of this account is Mr. Morris Thompson an American and great
industrialist and a resident of Alaska.





It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this
business proposal to you and for our bank to release the money to you.
You have to follow the instruction which I will send to you as the next
of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent
disbursement since nobody is coming for it and I don't want this money
to go into our bank treasury as unclaimed bill.





The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that if such money
remained unclaimed after Three years, the money will be transferred
into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The money has now stayed more
than three years and I am preparing documentation to prove that this
money has been transferred to our bank treasury. It will be between me
and you only that will know that the money is not transferred into our
treasure. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this transaction
is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a
Senegalese cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.





In appreciation of your assistance, I am offering you 30% of the total
sum. 5% for contingencies cost of transfer/other charges likely to be
incurred during the course of transaction, while the remaining 65% is
for me.





Upon receipt of your reply, I will send to you by fax or email the
text of the application which you will complete and forward to our bank
asking for this money to be paid to you as the next of kin to Mr.
Morris Thomson. I will not fail to bring to your notice that this
transaction is hitch-free and that you should not entertain any fear as
all required arrangements have been made for the transfer.


You should contact me immediately as soon as you receive this mail through the above email.





PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT ME IMMEDIATELY SHOULD YOU CONSIDER MY URGENT REQUEST.








Yours Faithfully,


Mrs. Grace Williams.





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