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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: barrister williams <vp3a@windowslive.com>
Reply-To: <barrjohnwilliams_bangkok@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sun, 11 Nov 2007 09:56:41 +0100
Subject: From The Dest Of Barrister John Williams,


>From The Dest Of Barrister John Williams, John & Associate Chambers37 Sathorn Tai Road, Bangkok Thailand Email: barrjohnwilliams_bangkok@yahoo.com.hk
Tel: +66894842812Dear Sir/Madam,Please kindly accept my apology for sending unsolicited mail to you I believe you are a highly respected personality considering the fact that I sourced your profile from a human resource profile database on your country. Though, I do not know to what extent you are familiar with events.Well, I am Barrister John Williams, a Solicitor. I am the Personal Attorney to Mr.Steve Anderson, who used to work with Siamrak Company Limited. On the 21st of April 2003, his wife and their three children were involved in a car accident along Sukhumvit Express Road. Unfortunately, they all lost their lives in the event of the accident. Since then I have made several enquiries to your Embassy to locate any of my client's relatives, this has also proved unsuccessful. After these several unsuccessful attempts, I decided to trace his relatives over the Internet to locate any member of his family but to no avail, hence, I contacted you to assist in repatriating the money left behind by my client in a Finance Company, Particularly, the Finance House where the deceased deposited the US$15 Million (Fifteen Million United States Dollars only).Consequently, this Finance House issued me a notice to provide the Next of Kin to claim the US$15 Million (Fifteen Million United States Dollars only) in their custody within the next ten official working days. Since I have been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for over 4 years now, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin of the deceased to claim the fund as the Next of Kin to him so that the fund will be transferred to your account by the Finance House.Upon receipt of the fund, I will come over to your country to meet with you for the disbursement of the fund and then you and I will share the money in this order: 70% will be for me, 30% will be for you. I have all the necessary legal documents that can back our claim we will make with the Finance House.All I require is your honest co-operation to enable us seeing this deal through. I guarantee you that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. You are needed as a next of kin to inherit your brother left fund Best regards . Barrister John Williams (Esq).
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