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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: "SITI GHAZALI" <info@cimb.org>
Reply-To: sitighazali18@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2010 19:13:20 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: Greetings To You

Hello,

I am Siti Ghazali,a staff of Private Banking Services at the
CIMB Bank (Malaysia). I am contacting you concerning our
customer and, an investment placed under our bank's 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 2004, the subject matter; ref: bb/Malaysia/bank/0012 came to
our bank toengage in business discussions with our Private Banking
Services Department. He informed us that he had a financial
portfolio of 8.35 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 2005, he asked that the money be
liquidated because he
needed to make an urgent investment requiring cash payment sin 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, 2005.

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 oflocating him to the internal investigations department of
the CIMB Bank. 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
CIMB Bank(Malaysia),
failing to receive viable claims they will most probably revert the
deposit back to CIMB Bank(Malaysia). This will result in the money
entering the CIMB Bank
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
CIMB Bank 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 on this email ( sitighazali16@hotmail.com)
immediately on my private email address to enable us
commence this line of discussion.

I await your response.

Siti Ghazali.

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