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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: John Michael <info@hsbcbank.org>
Reply-To: johnmichael9563@aim.com
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 2010 07:42:37 +0800
Subject: Email Proposal!!!


--
Name: John Michael

Email:johnmichael9563@aim.com


Good day,

Please kindly accept my apology for sending you this email without your
consent. I believe you are a highly respected personality, considering the
fact that I sourced your email from the peoples search database on the web
during my descret search for a foreign partner whom can assist me in taking
this business to it success. Though, I do not know to what extent you are
familiar with events. I have a proposal for you.This however is not mandatory
nor will I in any manner compel you to honour against your will, but I hope
you will read on and consider the value I offer.Please reply me if you are
intrested

I know this is an unconventional way of introducing a big and
profitablebusiness deal, but I however want you to take your time to read my
lettercarefully, you will understand the necessity for my action. I am John
Michael, staff of International Private Banking at HSBC Bank. Iam contacting
you concerning a deceased customer and an investment he placed under our banks
management three years ago. I would respectfully request that you keep the
contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the
information you come by as a result of this mail.

I contacted you independently of our investigation and no one is informedof
this communication. I would like to intimate you with certain facts that I
believe would be of interest to you. In 2001, the subject mattercame to our
bank to engage in business discussions with our privatebanking division. He
informed us that he had a financial portfolio ofForty Eight Million Three
Hundred and Fifty Thousand United StatesDollars ($48,350,000.00 USD), which he
wished to have us turn over(invest) on his behalf. I was the officer assigned
to his case; I was madenumerous suggestions in line with my duties as the de-
facto chief operations officer of the private banking sector, especially given
the volume of funds he wished to put into our bank. We met on numerous
occasions prior to any investments being placed. I encouraged him to consider
various growth funds with prime ratings. The favored route in myadvice to
customers is to start by assessing data on 6000 traditional stocks and bond
managers and 2000 managers of alternative investments.Based on my advice, we
spun the money around various opportunities and made attractive margins for
our first months of operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at this
point at over ten million United StatesDollars, this margin was not the full
potential of the fund but he desiredlow risk guaranteed returns on investments.

In mid 2002, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed to make
an urgent investment requiring cash payments in here in the United Kingdom. He
directed that I liquidate the funds and deposit it with a security firm here
in London. I informed him that HSBC would have to makespecial arrangements to
have this done and in order not to circumvent dueprocess, the bank would have
to make a 9.5 % deduction from the funds tocater for banking and statutory
charges. He complained about the chargesbut later came around when I explained
to him the complexities of the taskhe was asking of us. Cash movement across
boarders has become especiallystrict since the incidents of 9/11. I contacted
my affiliate in here in London and made the funds available to the security
firm.

I undertook allthe processes and made sure I followed his precise instructions
to theletter and had the funds deposited at the London based
securityconsultancy firm, Corporate Securities Co. Corporate Securities Co is
aspecialist private firm that accepts deposits from high net worthindividuals
and blue chip corporations that handle valuable products orundertake
transactions that need immediate access to cash. This small and highly private
organization is familiar especially to the highly placed and well-connected
organizations. In line with Instructions, the money was deposited with
Corporate Securities Co. The deceased told me he wanted themoney; there in
anticipation of his arrival from Norway later that week.This was the last
communication we had, this transpired around 25th June 2003. In June last
year, we got a call from Corporate Securities Company informing us that the
activity of that particular portfolio. This was an astounding position as far
as I was concerned, given the fact that I managed the private banking sector I
was the only one who knew about the deposit at Corporate Securities Co, and I
could not understand why the deceased had not come forward to claim his
deposit. I made futile efforts to locate the deceased. I immediately passed
the task of locating him to the internal investigations department of HSBC.
Four days later, information started to trickle in, apparently our client was
dead. A person who suited his description was declared dead of a heart attack
in Cannes, South of France.

We were soon enough able to identify the body and cause of death was
confirmed. The bank immediately launched an investigation into possible
surviving next of kin to alert about the situation and also to come forward to
claim his estate. If you are familiar with private banking affairs, those who
patronize our services usually prefer anonymity, but also some levels of
detachment from conventional processes. In his bio-data form, he listed no
next of kin. In the field of private banking opening an account with us means
no one will know of its existence, accounts are rarely held under a name;
depositors use numbers and codes to make the accounts anonymous. This bank
also gives the choice to depositors of having their mail sent to them or held
at the bank itself,ensuring that there are no traces of the account and as I
said, rarely do they nominate next of kin.

Private banking clients apart from not nominating next of kin also usually in
most cases leave wills in our care, in this case; the deceased died without a
testament .In line with our internal processes for account holders who have
passed away, we instituted our own Investigations in goodfaith to determine
who should have right to claim the estate. This investigation has for the past
months been unfruitful. We have scanned every continent and used our private
investigation affiliate companies to get to the root of the problem. It is
this investigation that resulted in my being furnished with your details as a
possible relative of the deceased. My official capacity dictates that I am the
only party to supervise the investigation and the only party to receive the
results of the investigation. What this means, you being the last batch of
names wehave considered, is that our dear late fellow died with no known or
identifiable family member. This leaves me as the only person with the full
picture of what the prevailing situation is in relation to the deposit and the
late beneficiary of the deposit.

According to practice, Corporate Securities Co will by the end of this
financial year broadcast a request for statements of claim to HSBC,failing to
receive viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to HSBC.
This will result in the money entering the HSBC accounting system
and the portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the private banking
division. This will not happen if I have my way. What I wish to relate to you
will smack of unethical practice but I want you to understand something. It is
only an outsider to the banking world who finds the internal politics of the
banking world aberrational.

The world of private banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for those
who occupy certain offices and oversee certain portfolios. You should have
begun by now to put together the general direction of what I propose. I alone
have the deposit details and they will release the deposit to no one unless I
instruct them to do so. I alone know of the existence of this deposit for as
far as HSBC is concerned, the transaction with our late customer concluded
when I sent the funds to corporate securities, all outstanding interactions in
relation to the file are just customer services and due process. Corporate
Securities Co has no single idea of what the history or nature of the deposit.
They are simply awaiting instructions to release the deposit to any party that
comes forward. This is the situation. This bank has spent great amounts of
money trying to track this mans family; they have investigated for months and
have found no family. The investigation has come to an end. My proposal;you
share similar details to the late fellow; I am prepared to place you in a
position to instruct Corporate Securities Co to release the deposit to you as
the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to
share the money with you in half. That is: I will simply nominate you as the
next of kin and have them release the deposit to you.We share the proceeds
50/50.I would have gone ahead to ask the funds be released to me, but that
would have drawn a straight line to me and my involvement in claiming the
deposit. I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you within a
few days. I will simply inform the bank of the final closing of the file
relating to the deceased I will then officially communicate with Corporate
Securities Co and instruct them to release the deposit to you. With these two
things: all is done.

The alternative would be for us to have Corporate Sec unities Co direct the
funds to another bank with you as account holder. This way there will be no
need for you to think of receiving the money from Corporate Securities
Company. We can fine-tune this based on our interactions. I am aware of the
consequences of this proposal. I ask that if you find no interest in this
project that you should discard this mail. I ask that you do not be vindictive
and destructive. If my offer is of no appeal to you, delete this message and
forget I ever contacted you. Do not destroy my career because you do not
approve of my proposal.

You may not know this but people like myself who have made tidy sums out of
comparable situations run the whole private banking sector. I am not a
criminal and what I do, I do not find against good conscience, this may be
hard for you to understand, but the dynamics of my industry dictates that I
make this move. Such opportunities only come ones' way once in a lifetime. I
cannot let this chance pass me by, for once I find myself in total control of
my destiny. These chances won¡¯t pass me by. I ask that you do not destroy my
chance, if you will not work with me let me know and let me move on with my
life but do not destroy me. I am a family man and this is an opportunity to
provide them with new opportunities. There is a reward for this project and it
is a task well worth undertaking. I have evaluated the risks and the only risk
I have here is from you refusing to work with me and alerting my bank. I am
the only one who knows of this situation, good fortune has blessed you with a
name that has planted you into the center of relevance in my life. Let share
the blessing. If you find yourself able to work with me, contact me through
this same email account. If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this
process towards a conclusion. I wish to inform you that should you contact me
via official channels; I will deny knowing you and about this project. I
repeat, I do not want you contacting me through my official phone lines nor do
I wouldn¡¯t you contacting me through my official email account.Contact me only
through the numbers I will provide for you and also through this email
address. I do not want any direct link between you and me. My official lines
are not secure lines as they are periodically monitored to assess our level of
customer care in line with our Total Quality Management Policy.

Please observe this instruction religiously. Please, again, note I am a family
man, I have a wife and children. I send you this mail not without a measure of
fear as to what the consequences, but I know within me that nothing ventured
is nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter
of gold. This is the one truth I have learnt from my private banking clients.
Do not betray my confidence. If we can be of one accord, we should plan a
meeting, soon.Thank you so much for your time.


I look forward to hearing from you soonest.


I await your response.

John Michael.

N/B
Kindly send your response to my direct email

Address: johnmichael9563@aim.com



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