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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: Mr.Spencer Mark <spencer_private167@msn.com>
Reply-To: <private_spencer@live.com>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:45:15 +0000
Subject: Re:Contact Me





Hello,

May I be Granted the Opportunity to Introduce Myself,My Name is
Prof.Spencer Mark,I am the Auditor/Manager of Bank
of Scotland.

I have an Obscured Business Suggestion for
you.There is an account opened in this bank and the money is Lying in an
inactive account awaiting liquidation,The funds is valued £15,000,000.00
(Fifteen Million British Pounds)It belongs to one of our foreign customers By
Name Engr.Gambone Michael.Before he died,He was a petroleum/Gas contractor with
the British National Petroleum Corporation,He died with his wife Named Gambone
Deborah on board the Swiss air Flight 111,Which crashed into the Atlantic,off Nova Scotia in september 2nd 1998.The news of this
crash was on the news which my efforts to notify his relatives leads to no
avail.You can read more about the death of Engr.Gambone Michael on visiting
these sites below:
http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/9809/swissair.victims.list/index.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/163662.stm
http://www.greatdreams.com/crash.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swissair_Flight_111

After
further investigation it was also discovered that Engr.Gambone Michael did not
declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paper work of his
bank deposit And
he also confided in me the last time he was at my office that no one except me
knew of his deposit in my bank.So,Fifteen Million British Pounds is still lying
in Bank Of Scotland and no one will ever come forward to claim it.What bothers
me most is that according to the laws of my country,if such funds remains
unclaimed in a bank for a period of 12 years that it will revert to the
ownership of the British Government.Against this backdrop,My Suggestion to you
is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand as the next of kin to
Engr.Gambone Michael so that you will be able to receive his funds.
I
want you to know that I have had everything planned out so that we shall come
out successful.I will file in for claims on your behalf and secure the necessary
approval and letter of probate in your favor for the move of the funds to an
account that will be provided by you.
Once the funds has been transferred to your
nominated bank account the sharing ratio is open for negotiation for you.The
percentage sharing will be 70%-30%,70% for me and 30% for your assistance.
Should you be interested Please send me the following:
1.Your Full
Names
2.Your Occupation
3.Your Age
4.Your Contact Address
5.Your
Phone number
6.Your Scanned copy of Identification

Kind
Regards,
Prof.Spencer Mark
Bank of Scotland.



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