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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: "Mr.Don Obi" <mrdonobi11@att.net>
Reply-To: mrdonobi@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 7 May 2010 10:32:43 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Greetings to you



Greetings to you,



Thank you for giving me your time. Please be patient and read my email to you. I am a staff of ACCESS BANK PLC ( Lagos Branch , Nigeria ) attached in private Banking Services.



I am contacting you concerning a customer and an investment placed under our banks management about 6 years ago. In 2004, the subject matter; Ref: Jb/access bank/107 came to our bank to engage in Private Banking services, I was the officer assigned to his case. We met on numerous occasions prior to any investments being placed,

I encouraged him to consider various growth funds with prime ratings. 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 1 million United States Dollars, this margin was not the full potential of the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments.



In line with the instructions he had earlier given to liquidate the funds after 5 years in order for him to make some Investment requiring cash payments in Europe and America , I followed his instructions and I later made numerous attempt to contact him after 3 years in order to get further instructions from him. I made futile efforts to locate him and I immediately passed the task of locating him to the internal investigations department of our bank. 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. There is US$5,000,000.00 deposited, I alone have the deposit details and this will be release to no one unless I instruct my Bank to do so. I decided to trace his relatives over the Internet to locate any member of his family but of no avail, hence I contacted you. I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin to the deceased since you have the same last (Names).



This is to enable us salvage the proceeds of his account and get it paid to you instead. I have this obsession that if the directors of the Company confiscated the money and enrich their pockets, it might not be put into proper and useful ventures to benefit the poor masses of this world. I am prepared to place you in a position to instruct my Bank to release the deposit to you as the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this process towards a conclusion.

Full Names:......................

Address:............................

Telephone:...........................

Cell phone:............................

Age:....................................

Occupation:.........................



I await your quick response.



Sincerely,

Mr. Don Obi

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