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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: hord james <a124_hord@msn.com>
Reply-To: <hordjames7000@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2008 23:00:35 +0000
Subject: I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE



Hello, My name is Mr.James Hord and I work with a Commercial Bank here inmalaysia.We had a customer and business tycoon who had a deposit of3,500,000.00 (Three Million ,Five hundred thousand Pound Sterlings GBP) before hedied in auto crash with his wife and only Child about 8years now (January30,2000) and since he died, we in the Bank here have been expectinghis/her next of kin/relative(s) for the inheritance of the deposit, butnone has surfaced. The policy of the Bank however stipulates a limited time period for suchinheritance to be made or the fund will be written off going by the recordof the incident, the time limit for the claim is closing up Soon for thenext of kin to show up or the account will be closed and i came to havethe knowledge of this account as the auditor in the bank.I happen to comeacross this file when i was going through the records. In this consideration, I am contacting you to seek for your kindunderstanding and sincere co-operation to claim this inheritance for ourmutual benefit in view of the fact that you are a Foreigner.If you canstand as the next of kin in this project,success is assured because I amin possession of the personal file jacket of the deceased which containsevery needed information about the deceased account, you and I stand norisk of any kind because I have enough information to support you inclaiming the inheritance.The proceedings of the transaction will be shared 60% for me and 40% foryou after expenses are reimbursed.Kindly indicate your willingness and weshall proceed with the initial step for the claim. The entire project is expected to last for about ten working days.Hope tohear from you soonest showing your interest and willingness. Yours FathifullyMr. James Hord

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