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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: micheal ewald <michealewald_77@msn.com>
Reply-To: <micheal-wald@hotmail.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:37:59 +0000
Subject: URGENT RESPOND




Greeting!

My name is Micheal Ewald,I am the operational manager in account section in charge of credit and foreign bills in one of the prime banks.

I am writing in respect of a foreign customer of my bank (MR. ANDREAS SCHRANNER from Munich, Germany) who perished with his whole families on 25TH JULY,2000 CONCORDE PLANE CRASH [ Flight AF4590 ] with the whole passengers aboard.[news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm] There is an account opened in this bank in 1998 by this great late INDUSTRIALIST who died without a written or oral WILL attached to the account.

Since his death , I personally has watched with keen interest to see the next of kin but all has proved abortive as no one has come to claim his funds and no other person knows about this account or anything concerning it, the account has no other beneficiary and until his death he was the manager of his company.

The total amount involved is $42,000,000.00 USD.[FORTY TWO MILLION DOLLARS) ]. We wish to start the first transfer with $20,000,000.00 [Twenty million] and upon successful transaction without any disappointment from your side, we shall reapply for the transfer of the remaining balance to your account.

I have secretly discussed this matter with the general manager of my bank who I must involve in order to have a smooth and a successful transfer of the fund to any foreign bank account which you are going to nominate.

On this note, I decided to seek for a reliable foreigner who will act as the foreign beneficiary of the fund from the deceased by providing his/her bank account where the fund will be transferred into for immediate investment on any viable project as no one has come up to be the next of kin.

The banking ethics here does not allow such money to stay more than six years without claim hence the money will be recalled to the government treasury as unclaimed after this long period of dormancy.

In view of this I got your contact through my personal search to see if you can assist by providing your safe bank account for the transfer or find a reliable person who will be capable of receiving such amount in his or her personal account.

At the conclusion of the transfer 55% of the fund will be for us here, we would give you 35% of the total transfer sum, while the remaining 10% will be set aside to settle expenses both parties might incur during the transfer process.

I wait in anticipation of your co-operation in reply and also ready for any questions concerning the clearity of this transaction.

Your sincerely,

Mr Micheal Ewald



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