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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: jacob walter <jacobwalter1793@msn.com>
Reply-To: <jacob.walter1@msn.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 17:00:28 +0000
Subject: Good Day



Good Day

It may surprise you receiving this letter from me, since there was no previous correspondence between us. My name is Jacob Walter, a United Kingdom national and personal Attorney to Late Mr. George, who was hereinafter called my client.

My purpose of contacting you is for you to help secure the funds left behind by my late client, to avoid it being confiscated or declared unserviceable by the Bank; this funds is valued (£8,800,000.00) Eight Million, Eight Hundred Thousand British pounds sterling deposited by my client before his death.

The Bank has issued me a notice to contact the next of kin or the account will be declared unserviceable and the fund diverted to the Bank treasury. Despite all efforts to get a hold of someone related to this man has proved futile; hence, I contacted you.

I am actually asking for your consent to present you to the Bank as the Next of Kin/beneficiary of my late client's funds, since you have the same last name, so that the proceeds of this account can be paid to your account, then we can share the fund on a mutually agreed percentage.

All the legal documentations to back up your claims as my client's Next of Kin, I shall provided them. All I require is your honest cooperation to enable us achieve this transaction.

The intended transaction will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from any infraction of the law. However, if this business proposition offends your moral ethics, do accept my sincere apology. If on the contrary you wish to achieve this goal with me, kindly get back to me.

Best Regards,

Anti-fraud resources: