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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: Thomas Williams <thomas_williams@yahoo.co.hk>
Reply-To: thomas_williams102@advir.com
Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 04:59:35 -0400
Subject:


Dear Friend,

Good fortune has blessed you with a name that has planted you into the center
of relevance in my life. I would respectfully request that you keep
the content
of this mail confidential because of its nature and respect the integrity of
this information. I also will not want you to read through this mail in a
hurry. Please take your time to read it. First of all, I'll like to introduce
myself and status, I am Thomas Williams a Filippino living in the UK. I am of
International Private Banking at HSBC Bank London. I am contacting you
concerning a deceased customer and a financial portfolio of $10 million United
states dollars, which he placed under HSBC Bank management two years ago for
turnover on his behalf.

As the Chief Operations Officer of the private banking sector, I
encouraged the
deceased on his arrival to our bank on various growth of fund with prime
ratings. The favoured route in my advice to him was accessing data on 6000
traditional stocks and bond management. Based on my advice, attractive margins
accrued profit and interest stood at over $10 million United States dollars,
this margin was not the full potential of the fund but he desired low risk
guaranteed returns on investment. Early 2007 my client asked that the money be
liquidated because of an urgent investment requiring cash payments here in
United Kingdom, and that the liquidated fund be deposited in CORPORATE
SECURITIES CO, a security consulting firm based in London who are specialist
private firm that accepts deposits from high net worth individuals and blue
chip corporations that handle valuable products and undertake
transactions that
need immediate access to cash. This order was given to me in anticipation of
his arrival from Norway later that week, this was the last communication we
had.

Sometimes this year I got a call from CORPORATE SECURITIES CO. informing me of
the inactivity of the portfolio, since I was the only one who knew about the
deposit, I immediately passed the task of locating my client to the Internal
Investigation Department of HSBC, which now revealed that the person
who suited
his description was declared dead of a heart attack in Canne, South of France.
And in line with banking internal processes for account holders who
have passed
away, an investigation was meant to be launched to contact a possible
surviving
NEXT OF KIN to come forward as beneficiary of the fund but unfortunately when
my client came patronizing our services, in his bio-data form, no next of kin
was listed neither was there a TESTATE. My client only used numbers and codes
to make the account he opened with us anonymous.

At this juncture, i'll like to unravel the true position of this transaction,
CORPORATE SECURITIES CO, has requested for statements of claim from me, and I
alone know of the existence of the deposit, for as far as HSBC Bank is
concerned the transaction with our late client concluded when I sent the fund
to the security firm, all outstanding interactions in relation to the file are
just customer service and due process. The security firm has no single idea of
what the history or nature of the deposit is, they await instructions to
release the deposit to any party that I nominate as the beneficiary of the
fund. I am prepared to place you in a position to instruct Corporate
Securities Co. to release the deposit to you as the NEXT OF KIN. Let me know
your true interest in this pending transaction so as to ascertain the
proceeds,
and I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you within
few days.
I implore you discard this mail if you find no interest in this transaction,
and if my offer is of no appeal to you, please don't be vindictive and
destructive just delete this message and forget I ever contacted you.

Finally, I am sending you this mail without a measure of fear, but I know
within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches
never come on a platter of gold. This is one truth I have learned from my
private banking clients.

Do not betray my confidence, if we can be of one accord, we should plan a
meeting soon.


I await your response.
Thomas Williams





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