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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 WAN" <j.wan@boc.cn>
Reply-To: john.wan00007@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 08:35:45 +1000 (EST)
Subject: DO CONSIDER MY PROPOSAL

Good day,

I am a staff of Private Banking Services at the Bank of China (BOC). I am
contacting you concerning our customer and, an investment placed under our
banks management 5 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 informed of this communication. I would like to intimate you with
certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you.

In 2005, the subject matter; ref: bb/boc/bank/0012 came to our bank to
engage in business discussions with our Private Banking Services Department.
He informed us that he had a financial portfolio of 8.370 million United
States Dollars, which he wished to have us turn over (invest) on his behalf.

I was the officer assigned to his case; I made numerous suggestions in line
with my duties as the de-facto chief operations officer of the Private
Banking Services Department, 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 my advice 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 10 million United States Dollars, this margin was not the full
potential of the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on
investments. In mid 2006, he asked that the money be liquidated because he
needed to make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in Europe. He
directed that I liquidate the funds and had it deposited with a firm. I
informed him that the bank would have to make special arrangements to have
this done and in order not to circumvent due process, the bank would have to
make a 9.5 % deduction from the funds to cater for banking and statutory
charges. He complained about the charges but later came around when I
explained to him the complexities of the task he was asking of us. Cash
movement across borders has become especially strict since the incidents of
9/11. I contacted my affiliate in and had the funds available. I undertook
all the processes and made sure I followed his precise instructions to the
letter and had the funds deposited in a security consultancy firm, the firm
is a specialist private firm that accepts deposits from high net worth
individuals and blue chip corporations that handle valuable products or
undertake 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 . He told me he wanted the money there in anticipation of his
arrival from Norway later that week. This was the last communication we had,
this transpired around 9th October, 2006.

In January last year, we got a call from the security firm informing us
that the inactivity 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 , and I
could not understand why he had not come forward to claim his deposit. I
made futile efforts to locate him I immediately passed the task of locating
him to the internal investigations department of the bank of china. Four
days later, information started to trickle in, apparently he was dead. A
person who suited his description was declared dead of a heart attack in
Canne, 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; he died intestate.

In line with our internal processes for account holders who have passed
away, we instituted our own investigations in good faith 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. The
investigation did not ever yield any result 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. 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, the firm will by the end of this financial year broadcast a
request for statements of claim to BOC, failing to receive viable claims
they will most probably revert the deposit back to BOC. This will result in
the money entering the BOC accounting system and the portfolio will be out
of my hands and out of the Private Banking Services Department. 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. There is US$
8,370,000.00 deposited , 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 BOC is concerned, the
transaction with our deceased customer concluded when I sent the funds to
the firm, all outstanding interactions in relation to the file are just
customer services and due process. 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 man's
family; they have investigated for months and have found no family. The
investigation has come to an end.

My proposal; I am prepared to place you in a position to give instruction
for the release of 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 customer I will then officially communicate with firm and
instruct them to release the deposit to you. With these two things: all is
done. The alternative would be for us to have firm 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 the firm. 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's
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
want you contacting me through my official email account. Contact me only
through 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 learned from my private banking clients. Do not betray my confidence.
If we can be of one accord, send me your response to enable us commence this
line of discussion.


I await your response.

John Wan.

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