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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. Mario Johnson" <mr.mariojohnson@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 09:11:35 -0800 (PST)
Subject: From: Mr. Mario Johnson




From: Mr. Mario Johnson



Dear Sir / Madam,



Good day and best wishes in all your endeavors. It gives me great privileged to contact you of a chance in a possibility of soliciting with you as a foreign partner to work things out together to enhance a great diversity of fund that has been trapped down in our financial institution.



Royal Bank of Scotland is one of the most reputable and popular banks in England. I am an investment consultant working with Royal Bank of Scotland.





I will be happy to do a nice deal with you from within this bank, if you have a corporate, or personal Bank account and if you are capable of keeping matters absolutely confidential. I need strong assurances that you can and that you will not let me down, sink, or double-cross me, if I transfer some good money into your bank account anywhere on earth.





During our periodic auditing in Royal Bank of Scotland over time, I discover some dormant accounts within the bank with various amounts of Dormant Assets. A Dormant Asset is defined as any asset deposited with a bank (i.e. money, securities, or Financial instruments, or cash, etc) for which there has been no contact with the customer, or any activity in such account for the last ten years, or more. Sometimes a person will open a bank account, deposit money, and then disappear into the thin air for whatever reasons. Banks are not always able to find out what has become of such “silent customers”. Usually such customers reside abroad and due to bank secrecy and non-disclosure agreements/policies, the bank cannot publish notices in the international press/media, to locate such depositors.



There were incidences in the past, where customers pass away by reason of death and their heirs could neither prove their heir-ship, nor come forward to claim the estates left behind by such deceased customers. This was a frequent occurrence during the first and second world wars periods in Europe, and for which reason, survivors of the war victims lost all the monies/assets their benefactors had in Swiss banks to this day, for example. The British banking industry has set up a simple, customer-friendly, rapid resolution procedure, operating to the customers' advantage, as a way of dealing with such situations. And that is what we are going to capitalize on, in this proposed transaction.





At this point, I am constrained not to give you any more details about this transaction until your response and expression of interest are received by me, vide return e-mail. Therefore, if you know that you are capable of handling large, or small amounts of money on trust, can keep secret and ready to take 45% of any amount I transfer to your account from the said dormant assets accounts as your commission and release the 55% remainder to me, then get back to me immediately. The amount in question here is $7,651,316 (Seven Million, six hundred and fifty one thousand, three hundred and sixteen American Dollars).



I want to assure you that this business is risk-free and it doesn’t matter whether your preferred/intended receiving bank a/c has one dollar only in it, or is empty, provided that the account is active and capable of receiving incoming funds.



I am looking forward to discussing this opportunity further with you in detail, after you must have replied this mail to express your firm interest in the offer. Thank you for your time and attention.



Regards,



Mr.Mario Johnson



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