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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: "Richard"<richardmazi01@myway.com>
Reply-To: richardmazi@albawaba.com
Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 05:59:13 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Strictly Confidential










Strictly Confidential

Date: 31st December, 2007

Dear friend,

A certain Mr.Edward Pearson was a first generation immigrant to Niger Delta Region. Edward Pearson became very successful here in Niger Delta, as a big time contractor to the successive Oil Drilling companies in Niger Delta and he has banked with a certain commercial bank here in Niger Delta, for decades. Today I am the Head of the Treasury Department of this same bank, where Edward has been banking with. I have worked with this same bank, which is a commercial bank located here in Niger Delta, for the last 15years and have been Edward's account manager in this bank for the last 10 years. My name is Mr. Richard Mazi, and I am a citizen of Nigeria.

Painfully and unfortunately too, Mr. Edward Pearson, his wife Jennifer and only son Jeff, all died in Thailand, where they were on holiday, on 26th December 2004, as victims of the unfortunate Indian ocean Tsunami of that year. Before his death,Edward had a substantial amount of money left in his account with our bank and unfortunately he died without a will, or survivor. As a result of these two facts, his account has remained inactive ever since and nobody has come forward to ask for this money, whether as either his next of kin, or the administrator of his estate, or anything. As things stand now, if nobody asks for this money very soon, then my bank will legally appropriate to itself the whole money in this account, as a fund, whose owner has been untraceable.

Therefore, my purpose of writing you this letter, in your position and capacity as a foreigner and a non-resident, and non-citizen of Nigeria, is to request for your cooperation and collaboration with me, for you and I to demand for and indeed claim the money in this his bank account with my bank to ourselves, instead of allowing the bank to do same. Our moral justification for doing so is that if we fail to do so, the bank will certainly claim the money, as it's own. However, the best thing would have been to pay the money to any living relation of the deceased customer, to whom it would rightly have belonged to, but there is absolutely no such known existing relation, { haven searched for same in vain, since January 2005}; thus leaving the money now at the mercy of whoever is able to claim it first, between you and I on one hand and the bank on the other hand, as we are the only two parties that know about anything surrounding the said fund.

Friend, your cooperation/collaboration with me in this venture is inevitable to it's success, because this money can only be released to a claimant that is not a Nigerian citizen and one that is domiciled outside Nigeria. No doubt, you fit the criteria perfectly well. My idea here is that our two sides will share this amount with the accrued interests, in agreed ratios, after it is paid to you as the supposed authentic next-of-kin to the Edward, because we need each other to make this happen. We may also choose to reinvest the money too and own such investments jointly upon agreed ratios too.

Please take notice and get the understanding that I never wrote, implied, or insinuated that the late Edward was your dead relation, or related to you in any other way, or even known to you, as I have no such evidence, or any reason to suggest that. I am simply, confidently telling you that the combination of the fact that your are a foreigner domiciled outside the Republic of Nigeria and my strategic position in the subject bank, are more than sufficient for me to cause the above money that he left in his account since 2004, to be legitimately, genuinely and lawfully paid in your favour, as if you were indeed related to him actually; the fact that you are not, notwithstanding. I am also guaranteeing that this project will be done according to internationally accepted standards of practice and morals only.

Essentially I need you to organize the reception and custody of the money in any country outside Nigeria, which may, or may not be your home country, or country of your normal domicile. My own duty is to arrange and cause our bank to effect, the hitch-free movement of the funds from the bank here to such your chosen destination and doing so in the most legitimate, lawful and ethically acceptable way. To do this effectively, I have also gotten the cooperation of the Director in charge of the International banking Dept of this our bank, whom I have co-opted in this project and who is already working with me here on the project now. What is even more interesting about this project is that you are not required to put up, or pay even a dime of your own money in the project. Therefore, what else can you ask for, or could one wish for, better than this?

There is currently $12,150,002.00, (Twelve million, one hundred and fifty thousand, two US Dollars) in the said account , plus the compounded interests that have accrued to it since January 2005, all of which we will move to your instructed bank, or chosen destination outside Africa, by Swift transfer, or cashier?s cheques. This US$12,150,002.00 plus interests, is the amount I am telling you that we have to move over to you and share, or re-invest and own upon mutually agreed ratios. The above amount will be to our mutual benefits and be ours legitimately too . Out of this amount, I am proposing for your consideration, that you will be entitled to one third of the $12,150,002.00, (Twelve million, one hundred and fifty thousand, two US Dollars), which is US$4,050,000? Four million, fifty thousand Dollars, {Plus1/3 of all interests that have accrued on this sum from January 2005 to date}, as your commission/share, on the completion of the project. Again, in order not to run
foul of the Patriot Act, or any other such laws that may be in force anywhere, we can as well move this fund in many installments of smaller bits of say $2.0m, or less at a time, if you want. However,appropriate documentations and clearance will accompany any sum being sent to you, to show the legitimacy and legality of the payment.

Moreover everything about this transaction will be done in a most civilized and non-criminal way, which must be according to internationally acceptable standards of practice and morals. In addition there is no risk of failure, or legal, or security problems, or prosecutions etc, for anybody in this transaction both now and in the future. Therefore, need I say again that you will indeed not regret your choice of doing this transaction with me at all?

I therefore very earnestly solicit your sincerest cooperation in this project and I will be very glad to give you some specifics as you may demand from me, as soon as you have confirmed your interest in this proposal. Please give me your urgent reply in very strict confidence, by email first and we will proceed from there.

Yours very Sincerely

Mr.Richard Mazi



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