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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: martins_lawson@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2008 01:57:48 -0800 (PST)
Subject: NEXT of KIN


¡Tengo nueva dirección de correo!Ahora puedes escribirme a:martins_lawson2@yahoo.com.co



- I am Martins Lawson a Banker in one of the leading Commercial Banks here in London. I contacted you based on a mutual business transaction that I would want us to handle in confidence and hope you can understand the need for us to do this and for you to stand in for it. One Mr.Morgan J. Hanson and his wife. died in a ghastly motor accident while on a business trip on the 24th of August 2002.The said couple had no children and was about 63years old before their death. He never identified with anybody as his relative and investigation made could not trace any relative to the late couple. Before his death, he has the sum of $14,755,889.00 usd made from contracts he executed with Oil Companies here in London and the proceeds are with our Commercial Bank. Few weeks ago, the Bank tried requesting that the next of KIN to the deceased should come up to claim his fund deposited with our Bank. I am the Manager in charge of unclaimed funds hence my contacting you to stand in as the next of Kin. After much effort made to locate any of their relation failed, I decided to contact you as to have you stand in as the next of KIN to claim the fund so that the bank will not declare the account dormant,freeze or confiscate the amount as they stated in the letter sent to my Department. If you can stand in, I assure you that this is risk free as I will advise you on what to do to have this fund moved to your account and we can agree on terms of sharing. As soon as we make application, obtain the necessary approval, the money will be paid through here or any of the banks payment centre overseas. This will take us about 10 working days to conclude depending on how you respond to our correspondence If you are willing to stand in as the next of Kin,send to me your full names, telephone numbers for us to discuss and to brief you on the procedure that has to be taken to have this transaction concluded within a short period of time. Note that we will have to reach an agreement on the sharing of the fund as you have to agree to give me my own share as soon as you receive the money to your account. I look forward to hearing from you. Respectfully, Mr. Martins Lawson


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