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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: "u8u u8u" <7777777777@klikni.cz>
Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 20:22:59 +0200
Subject: From The Desk Of Barrister Williams Smith,


From The Desk Of Barrister Williams Smith,
Weekon Legal Practitioner & Chamber
1087 Cheang Wattana Road,Nonthanburi,
Bangkok, Thailand
Email: barr_williams_smith66@hotmail.com
Email: barrwilliams_smith1@hotmail.com
Tel:+66805948051.

Dear 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 Williams Smith, a Solicitor. I am the Personal Attorney
to Mr.Steve , who used to work with SIAMRAK Company Limited in Bangkok
Thailand . On the 21st of April 2004, 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 Bank here in
Thailand.Particularly the Bank where the deceased deposited the US$35
Million (Thirty Five Million United States Dollars only).

Consequently, this Bank issued me a notice to provide the Next of Kin to
claim the US$35 Million (Thirty Five 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 3 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 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 Williams Smith (Esq).

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