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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: "Dave Coleman" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <davecoleman112@sify.com>
Date: Sat, 6 Mar 2010 17:18:40 +0100
Subject: Request For Urgent Business Relationship

I am a senior manager accounts/audit in Nat West Bank London. I am writing following
an opportunity in my office that will be of immense benefit to both of us. In my department
we discovered an abandoned sum of ?10.5 (Ten million five hundred Thousand Pounds Only) in an account that belong to one of our foreign customers late Mr.Morris Thompson an American who unfortunately lost his life in the plane crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed on January 31 2000,including his wife and only daughter.
Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin or relatives to come over and claim his money.Unfortunately i discovered that his supposed next of kin being his only daughter died along with him in the plane crash leaving nobody with the knowledge of the funds behind for claim. It is therefore upon this discovery that i and two other officials in this department now decided to make business with you and release the money to you as the next of kin or beneficiary of the funds for safety keeping and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go back into government treasury as unclaimed bill.
The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that any unclaimed money after ten years  will be transferred into banking treasury account as unclaimed funds.We agreed that 35% of this money would be for you as foreign partner,while the balance will be for my colleagues and I.I will visit your country for disbursement according to the percentage indicated above, once this money gets into your account.Please be honest with me.To commence this transaction, we require you to immediately indicate your interest by a return e-mail and enclose the Following information:1. Full name 2: Your private telephone and Fax numbers. 3. Occupations and Nationality.please contact me through my private E-mail addres (davecoleman112@sify.com)
Best regards
Dave Coleman

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