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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: Kelvin Haroun <k.haro44net@gmail.com>
Reply-To: k_haro44net@yahoo.fr
Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 03:34:05 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Hello ,


Hello ,
 
Permit me to introduce myself, my name is Kelvin Haroun,a private financial consultant manager. I happened to have managed accounts for Foreigners here in the Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire, in discharge of my duty; I stumbled on this domiciliary account that has remained dormant for  years now with the sum of Fifteen Million Dollars.(US$15.000.000.00)
I contacted my director and we made enquiries and tried to contact the account owner but discovered that the account holder Engr. Frederick M. Wong and his wife, and three children were involved in the ill fated EgyptAir Flight 767  Airways that crashed  in November 1999 in which all passengers on board died. We then opened his account file and also discovered that he did not declare any next of kin or relations in all his official documents in the bank. I was then instructed to find a relation to the deceased client, so that the proceedings of his account with our Bank can be released to the family. You can verify more of the story in this site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/502503.stm
I have tried now for over six months to find one but to no avail. Our banking policy states that, if an account holder with our Bank is decease in such a situation with no beneficiary, the funds are confiscated after Twelve years and remitted to the Government treasury.
 
I am writing you so that we can work together to remit the funds to you as the next of kin to engineer Frederick M. Wong because the funds belong to a foreigner and has to be claimed by a foreigner as I would not want this magnitude of money to just go to the Government purse. I guarantee this transaction under a legitimate arrangement that will not breach the law by both parties; it’s a simple process which will take a short while to process.
Upon receipt of your response l will give you more detail.
Regards,
Kelvin Haroun

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