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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: "Dr. James Karlson" <mail@tpg.com.au>
Reply-To: <jkarlson1@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2009 18:43:11 -0700
Subject: STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

Date: 9th Oct, 2009

Dear friend,


I am writing you in respect of a certain Mr. Chen Huang, who died with his wife and their only daughter in the Taiwanese plane crash of February 16,1998. Please view this link, if you will :http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9802/16/taiwan.crash.update2/The late Mr. Chen Huang was Head Department of Foreign Exchange, Central Bank of Taiwan. My name is Mr. James Karlson, a British citizen by birth, with African descent. I am the Treasury Manager of one of the Commercial Banks here in UK. Please read the rest of my story and the reason for my writing you this mail.

The late Mr. Chen Huang was very rich by all standards and he has an account with this bank here in UK, where I work, which he opened way back in 1995. By the time he died in 1998, he had amasses very substantial amount of money in this account. Because he died with the wife and only daughter, this account has remained dormant to date. His only daughter who was his next-of-kin in the account, died with him in the crash. And because of this, this account has remained inactive ever since his death, although my bank has continued to credit periodic interests to the amount in his account to date, which have been compounding to make the account grow further. This has been going on in these past 10 years, and nobody has come forward to ask for his money. As things stand now, if nobody asks for this money very soon, it will be as good as forfeited to the British government, hence my writing you now. I am absolute that No other person knows about this account or any thing concerning
it, except me and the Chief Inter

Therefore, my purpose of writing you this letter, in your position and capacity as a non-resident, and non-citizen of Britain, is to request for your cooperation and collaboration with me, for you and I to demand for and indeed claim the deceased's money in this his bank account with my bank to ourselves, instead of allowing the British authority to do same. Our moral justification for doing so is that if we fail to do so, the bank, or British authority will certainly claim the money to themselves, like what had been happening here in the past.

Friend, your cooperation/collaboration with me in this venture is inevitable to it's success, because this money can only be released to a claimant that is not a British citizen and one that is domiciled outside the shores of London. No doubt, you fit the criteria perfectly well. My idea here is that our two sides will share this amount with the accrued interests, in agreed ratios, after it is paid to you as the supposed authentic next-of-kin to the deceased, because we need each other to make this happen.


Please take notice and get the understanding that I never wrote, implied, or insinuated that the late Mr. Chen Huang was your dead relation, or was related to you in any way, or even known to you, as I have no such evidence, or any reason to suggest that. I am simply and confidently telling you that the combination of the facts that your are a foreigner, domiciled outside the Uk, and my present privileged strategic position inthe subject bank, are more than sufficient for me to cause the money that he left in his account since 1998, to be legitimately, genuinely and lawfully paid in your favour, as if you were indeed related to him actually; the fact that you are not, notwithstanding. And you and I will not be committing any crime by doing so. Thus, I am also hereby guaranteeing you before hand, that this project will be done according to internationally accepted standards of practice and morals only.

Essentially, I need you to organize the reception and custody of the money in any bank account, in any country outside UK, which may, or may not be your home country, or country of your normal domicile, until we share the money in the end. My own duty is to arrange and cause our bank to effect, the hitch-free movement/payment of the funds from the bank here to such your chosen destination and doing so in the most legitimate, lawful and ethically acceptable manner. To do this effectively, I have also gotten the cooperation of the Head of the International banking Dept of this our bank and the Chief Internal Auditor of my bank, whom I have co-opted in this project and who are already working with me here on the project now.


There is currently $17,525, 300.00, (Seventeen million, five hundred and twenty five thousand, three hundred US Dollars only) in the said account, plus the compounded accumulated interests that have accrued to this sum from 1998 to date, all of which we will be asking the bank to pay to us, in your names and favour, vide Swift transfer(s), or cashier's cheques/checks. This US$17,525,300 plus interests, is the amount I am telling you that we have to pay to you wherever you want it paid and thereafter, we will share, or re-invest and own same, upon mutually agreed ratios. The above amount will be to our mutual benefits and be ours legitimately too. Out of this amount, I am proposing for your consideration, that you will be entitled to one third of the $17,525,300.00, (Seventeen Million, Five Hundred and Twenty Five thousand, three Hundred US dollars only), which is at least US$5,841,767 (Five million, Eight hundred and forty-one thousand, seven hundred and sixty-seven US Dollar
s, {Plus1/3 of all interests that

Again, in order not to run foul of the Patriot Act, or any other such laws that may be in force anywhere, we can as well move this fund in many installments of smaller bits of say $5.0m , or less at a time, if you want. However, appropriate documentations, official authorizations and clearances for this inheritance will accompany any sum being sent to you, to show the source, legitimacy and legality of the payment. But whether we will eventually be remitting the said funds to you en bloc, or installmentally, the appropriate documentations, official authorizations and clearances for this inheritance will first be processed and gotten for the total inheritance in a one-off manner.

Moreover everything about this transaction will be done in a most civilized and non-criminal way, which must be according to internationally acceptable standards of practice and morals. In addition there is no risk of failure, or legal, or security problems, or prosecutions etc, for anybody in the transaction both now and in the future. Therefore, need I say again that you will indeed not regret your choice of doing this transaction with me at all?

I therefore very earnestly ask for your sincerest cooperation in this project and I will be very glad to give you some specifics as you may demand from me, as soon as you have confirmed your interest in this proposal. Please give me your urgent reply in very strict confidence, by email first and we will proceed from there. I could be reached on the phone number below, but I prefer you contact me via e-mail: jkarlson@hotmail.com first, for a start.

Yours very Sincerely


Dr. James Karlson.
Tel: +447035961161


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