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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: "Mr. Allan Tapnack." <Bruce@Dreamshotz.com>
Reply-To: allantapnack@web2mail.com
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 2010 15:07:29 -0400
Subject: PERSONALLY TO YOU.


From: Allan Tapnack.
Investec Private Bank Limited,
London branch-United Kingdom.

Attn:

Please kindly accept my apology for sending unsolicited mail to you which I
know will be a surprise to you.

Allan Tapnack is my name, a staff of Investec Private Bank Limited. I would
like to intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest
to you. In February 7th 2007, the subject matter came to our bank to engage
in business discussions. He informed us that he had a financial portfolio
of Twenty-five million United States Dollars, ($25m), which he wished to
have us turn over (invest) on his behalf.

In December 2008, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed
to make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in Helsinki- Finland.
He directed that I liquidate the investment and deposit the funds with a
reliable and secured Safe Deposit Firm, prior to his return from Norway by
the end of the month. I contacted my affiliate and made the funds available
to a Safe Deposit Firm. I undertook all the processes and made sure I
followed his precise instructions to the letter and had the funds deposited
with the Safe Deposit Firm.

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. Investec Private Bank
also gives the choice to depositors of having their mail sent to them or
held at the bank itself, to ensure 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; the deceased died
without a testate. 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. It is this investigation that resulted in my being furnished
with your details as a possible relative of the deceased.

In October last year 2009, I got a call from the safe deposit firm
informing us about the inactivity of that particular portfolio. I made
futile efforts to locate the deceased. I immediately passed the task of
locating him to the internal investigations department. Four days later,
information started to trickle in, apparently our client was dead. A person
who suited his description was declared dead of a heart attack, the body
was identified and cause of death was confirmed.

According to practice, the safe deposit firm will by the end of this
financial year broadcast a request for statements of claim to (Investec
Private Bank), failing to receive viable claims they will most probably
revert the deposit back to (Investec Private Bank).

My proposal: I now seek your permission to present you as a next of kin to
the deceased, as all documentations will be carefully worked out to make
you the beneficiary to the funds $25 Million (Twenty-five Million United
States Dollars.) ; I am prepared to place you in a position to instruct The
security Firm to release the deposit to you as the closest surviving
relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to share the money
with you. That is: I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have
them release the deposit to you.

Upon receipt of the fund, I will come over to your country to meet with you
for the disbursement of the fund and then you and I will share the money in
this order: 50% will be for me, 40% will be for you. While 10% is for
execution of the fund incase of any expenses you may encounter during the
process of the fund into your account.

I wish to let you know that I am making this proposal to you personally
without the knowledge of any staff of my bank. I wish to inform you that
should you contact me via official channels; I will deny knowing you and
about this project. Contact me only through the numbers I will provide for
you and also through this email address. I do not want any direct link
between you and myself. My official lines are not secured lines as they are
periodically monitored to assess our level of customer care in line with
our Total Quality Management Policy.

I will be expecting to receive your response to this proposal so that we
can proceed with the claim.

Sincerely,

Allan Tapnack




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