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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: "john2smith@cartagena.es" <john2smith@cartagena.es>
Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2007 11:46:57 +0100 (CET)
Subject: From Mr John Smith



From Mr John Smith,

Dear Friend,

I am Mr.John Smith,a manager in the Bills and Exchange at the
Foreign Remittance Department of one of the leading banks in Ghana. I
am writing this letter to ask for your support and cooperation to carry
out this business opportunity in my department.

We discovered an abandoned sum of$30,000,000.00 (Thirty Million United States Dollars only) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers who died along with his entire family a wife and two children in Octomber 1999 in an auto crash.

Since we heard of his death, we have been expecting his next-of-kin to
come over and put claims for his money as the heir,because we cannot
release the fund from his account unless someone applies for claim as
the next-of-kin to the deceased as indicated in our banking
guidelines.Unfortunately,neither their family member nor distant
relative has everappeared to claim the said fund.It is in our banking
guideline that if none of the relatives come up to claim this fund
after 7years of the death of the late customer,the fund will be
regarded as an unclaimed bill and will be transferred to the bank's
treasury account.

Upon this discovery, I and other officials in my department have agreed
to make business with you and release the total amount into your
account as the heir of the fund since no one came for it or discovered
he maintained account with our bank,otherwise the fund will be returned
to the banks treasury as unclaimed fund.

We have agreed that our ratio of sharing will be as stated thus;30 %
for you as foreign partner,65 % for us the officials in my department
and 5 % for the settlement of all local and foreign expences incurred
by us and you during the course of this business.

Upon the successful completion of this transfer, I and one of my
colleagues will come to your country and mind our share. It is from our
70% we intend to import Agricultural Machineries into my country as a
way of recycling the fund.


To commence this transaction,we require you to immediately indicate
your interest by a return e-mail with the following information:

1.)Your private telephone and fax number

2.)Your full name

Upon the receipt of this,i will inturn get back to you and give you the
mordalities for the bank to approve you as the next of kin.
Note also, this transaction must be kept because of its nature.I look
forward to receiving your prompt response.

Best Regards,
John Smith

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