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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: "Bank of China (UK)" <luckydaynl1473@sify.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:48:25 +0530 (IST)
Subject: Without prejudice

Good day,

I am Simon J. Hobbys, a staff of Private Banking Services at the
Bank of China (BOC) United Kingdom. I am contacting you concerning our
customer and an investment placed under our bank's management four years ago.

I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail
confidential and respect the integrity of the information you come by
as a result of this mail. I contacted you independently of our investigation
and no one is informed of this communication. I would like to intimate you
with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you.

In 2002, the subject matter; ref: bb/boc/bank/0012 came to our bank to
engage in business discussions with our Private Banking Services
Department. He informed us that he had a financial portfolio of 8.35
Million United States Dollars, which he wished to have us turn over
(invest) on his behalf.

I was the officer assigned to his case; I made numerous suggestions in
line with my duties as the de-facto chief operations officer of the Private
Banking Services Department, especially given the volume of funds he
wished to put into our bank. We met on numerous occasions prior to any
investments being placed. I encouraged him to consider various growth funds
with prime ratings. The favored route in my advice to customers is to start
by assessing data on 6000 traditional stocks and bond managers and 2000
managers of alternative investments.

Based on my advice, we spun the money around various opportunities and
made attractive margins for our first months of operation, the accrued
profit and interest stood at this point at over 10 million United States
Dollars,this margin was not the full potential of the fund but he desired
low risk guaranteed returns on investments. In mid 2004, he asked that the
money be liquidated because he needed to make an urgent investment requiring
cash payments in Europe. He directed that I liquidate the funds and had it
deposited with a firm.

I informed him that the bank would have to make special arrangements
to have this done and in order not to circumvent due process, the bank
would have to make a 9.5 % deduction from the funds to cater for banking
and statutory charges. He complained about the charges but later came
around when I explained to him the complexities of the task he was asking
of us.Cash movement across borders has become especially strict since the
incidents of 9/11. I contacted my affiliate in and had the funds
available.

I undertook all the processes and made sure I followed his precise
instructions to the letter and had the funds deposited in a security
consultancy firm, the firm is a specialist private firm that accepts
deposits from high net worth individuals and blue chip corporations that
handle valuable products or undertake transactions that need immediate
access to cash. This small and highly private organization is familiar
especially to the highly placed and well-connected organizations. In line
with instructions, the money was deposited. He told me he wanted the money
there in anticipation of his arrival from Norway later that week. This was
the last communication we had, this transpired around 9th October, 2004.

In January last year, we got a call from the security firm informing
us that the inactivity of that particular portfolio. This was an
astounding position as far as I was concerned, given the fact that I
managed the private banking sector I was the only one who knew about the
deposit,and I could not understand why he had not come forward to claim his
deposit.I made futile efforts to locate him I immediately passed the task
of locating him to the internal investigations department of the Bank of
China.Four days later, information started to trickle in, apparently he was
dead.A person who suited his description was declared dead of a heart
attack in Canne, South of France. We were soon enough able to identify the
body and cause of death was confirmed.

The bank immediately launched an investigation into possible surviving next
of kin to alert about the situation and also to come forward to claim his
estate. If you are familiar with private banking affairs, those who
patronize our services usually prefer anonymity, but also some levels of
detachment from conventional processes. In his bio-data form, he listed no
next of kin. In the field of private banking, opening an account with us
means no one will know of its existence, accounts are rarely held under a
name; depositors use numbers and codes to make the accounts anonymous. This
bank also gives the choice to depositors of having their mail sent to them
or held at the bank itself, ensuring that there are no traces of the
account and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of kin. Private banking
clients apart from not nominating next of kin also usually in most cases
leave wills in our care, in this case; he died intestate.

In line with our internal processes for account holders who have passed
away, we instituted our own investigations in good faith to determine
who should have right to claim the estate. This investigation has for the
past months been unfruitful. We have scanned every continent and used our
private investigation affiliate companies to get to the root of the problem.
The investigation did not ever yield any result My official capacity
dictates that I am the only party to supervise the investigation and the
only party to receive the results of the investigation. This leaves me as
the only person with the full picture of what the prevailing situation is
in relation to the deposit and the late beneficiary of the deposit.
According to practice, the firm will by the end of this financial year
broadcast a request for statements of claim to BOC, failing to receive
viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to BOC. This
will result in the money entering the BOC accounting system and the
portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the Private Banking
Services Department. This will not happen if I have my way.

What I wish to relate to you will smack of unethical practice but I
want you to understand something. It is only an outsider to the banking
world who finds the internal politics of the banking world aberrational.
The world of private banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for
those who occupy certain offices and oversee certain portfolios. You should
have begun by now to put together the general direction of what I propose.
There is US$ 8,370,000.00 deposited , I alone have the deposit details and
they will release the deposit to no one unless I instruct them to do so. I
alone know of the existence of this deposit for as far as BOC is concerned,
the transaction with our deceased customer concluded when I sent the funds
to the firm, all outstanding interactions in relation to the file are just
customer services and due process. They are simply awaiting instructions to
release the deposit to any party that comes forward. This is the
situation. This bank has spent great amounts of money trying to track this
man's family; they have investigated for months and have found no family. The
investigation has come to an end.

My proposal; I am prepared to place you in a position to give
instruction for the release of the deposit to you as the closest
surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the
money with you in half. That is: I will simply nominate you as the next of
kin and have them release the deposit to you. We share the proceeds 50/50.

I would have gone ahead to ask the funds be released to me, but that
would have drawn a straight line to me and my involvement in claiming the
deposit. I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you
within a few days. I will simply inform the bank of the final closing of
the file relating to the customer I will then officially communicate with
firm and instruct them to release the deposit to you. With these two
things: all is done. The alternative would be for us to have firm direct the
funds to another bank with you as account holder. This way there will be no
need for you to think of receiving the money from the firm. We can
fine-tune this based on our interactions.

I am aware of the consequences of this proposal. I ask that if you
find no interest in this project that you should discard this mail. I ask
that you do not be vindictive and destructive. If my offer is of no appeal
to you, delete this message and forget I ever contacted you. Do not destroy
my career because you do not approve of my proposal. You may not know this
but people like myself who have made tidy sums out of comparable
situations run the whole private banking sector. I am not a criminal and
what I do, I do not find against good conscience, this may be hard for you
to understand, but the dynamics of my industry dictates that I make this
move. Such opportunities only come ones' way once in a lifetime. I cannot
let this chance pass me by, for once I find myself in total control of my
destiny. These chances won't pass me by.

I ask that you do not destroy my chance, if you will not work with me
let me know and let me move on with my life but do not destroy me. I am a
family man and this is an opportunity to provide them with new
opportunities. There is a reward for this project and it is a task
well worth undertaking. I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have
here is from you refusing to work with me and alerting my bank. I am the
only one who knows of this situation,good fortune has blessed you with a
name that has planted you into the center of relevance in my life. Let's
share the blessing.

If you find yourself able to work with me, contact me through this
same email account. If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this
process towards a conclusion. I wish to inform you that should you
contact me via official channels; I will deny knowing you and about this
project. I repeat, I do not want you contacting me through my official
phone lines nor do I want you contacting me through my official email
account. Contact me only through this email address. I do not want any
direct link between you and I. My official lines are not secure lines as
they are periodically monitored to assess our level of customer care in
line with our Total Quality Management Policy. Please observe this
instruction religiously.


Please, again, note I am a family man; I have a wife and children. I
send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the
consequences, but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained
and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. This
is the one truth I have learned from my private banking clients. Do not
betray my confidence. If we can be of one accord, send me your response
immediately to enable us commence this line of discussion.

I await your response.

Yours sincerely,
Simon James Hobbys.
Bank Of China, UK Branch





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