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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: "Mr Harry Coker" <harrycoker@klikni.cz>
Reply-To: mails4_harrycoker@yahoo.es
Date: Sat, 17 May 2008 12:24:28 -0700
Subject: CAN WE WORK TOGETHER?


Greetings,

I am Mr.Harry Coker, the auditor general of a prime bank.There Is
an account opened in my bank in 1997 and since 2000 nobody has
operated on this account again, after going through some old
file in the records I discovered that if I do not remit this
money out urgently it would be confiscated by our bank. The
owner of this account is Mr. Andreas Schranner,a German who
works at MountResources Ltd. a geologist by profession. He
died since 2000 along side with his entire family his wife
Maria,their daughter Andrea Eich,her husband Christian,and
their children Katharina,eight, and Maximilian, 10,all died in
the clash,

Please log on here to see for your self,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

and the amount involved is Thirty Six Million United States Dollars.
I am only contacting you as a foreigner because the bank is going to
welcome you as a foreigner that has correct information about the account,
which I will give to you before we proceed. I need your full co-operation
to make this work fine. If you are capable to handle such an amount in
strict confidence and trust we will achieve this money immediately, I will
also use my position to influence and affect legal approvals and immediate
onward transfer of this money to your account with appropriate clearance
from the ministries and foreign exchange department. As soon as the transfer

is concluded, you are entitled to 25% of the total funds.I will expect a
straight
answer from you YES or NO If yes,then let's work out the modalities and a
brief profile of your person is expected.I look forward to your earliest
reply.

Best Regards,

Mr.Harry Coker

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