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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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <bennettmichael@gawab.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:27:26 +0000
Subject: From Mr. Bennett



Dear Friend,How are you today? I hope great. I am Mr. Michael Bennett From Harlesden, North West London, here in England. I work for NatWest Bank Corporation London. I am writing you from my department office, being the assistant manager (Greater London Regional Office), I discovered an abandoned sum of $12.5 million USA Dollars (twelve million five hundred thousand US dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customers Late Mr. Thompson Morrison,an American citizen who unfortunately lost his life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which took place on 31/ 1/2000, including his wife and only daughter. Click to view details of the crash http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/02/01/alaska.airlines.list/. The choice of contacting you is aroused from the geographical nature of where you live, particularly due to the senility of the transaction and the confidentiality herein. Now our bank has been waiting for any of the relatives to come-up for the claim but nobody has done that. I personally has been unsuccessful in locating the relatives for 2 years now, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin /Will Beneficiary to the deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at 12.5 Million Dollars can be paid to you. This will be disbursed or shared in these percentages,60% to me and 40% to you. I have secured all necessary legal documents that can be used to back up this claim we are making. All i need is to fill in your names to the documents' and legalize it in the court here to prove you as the legitimate beneficiary. All I need now is your honest Co-operation, Confidentiality and Trust to enable us see this transaction through. I guarantee you that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any breach of the law. Please, provide me the following as we have few days to run it through: 1. Full Name 2. Telephone Number 3. Contact AddressHaving gone through a methodical search, I decided to contact you hoping that you will find this proposal interesting. Please on your confirmation of this message and indicating your interest will furnish you with more information.Regards, Mr. Michael Bennett Tel: +447031915830 Fax: +448704717161 Email:bennetmichael@gawab.com

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