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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: "Geoffrey Bell" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bellgeo@blumail.org>
Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2011 06:12:02 -0600
Subject: Ref: Information about Your late Relation/Family member - Final Notice!

Compliment,

Ref: Information about Your late Relation/Family member - Final Notice!

This is our second but final attempt to reach you in view of this subject matter.
When someone dies without leaving a will and there's no known relative to inherit, the government receives the money. Unless, a previously unknown distant relative; a descendant from the same ancestor is found within a limited time frame at the discretion of the treasury department to claim the inheritance as laid out in section 46 of the Administration of Estates and Inheritance Act 1975 (with As stated in our previous letter, we are legally empowered to track and reunite unclaimed funds with distant relatives of people who have died without making a will or known next of kin and after an extensive genealogical research effort, we have traced a dormant termed deposit bank account with your family name and the account has a total of GBP£12,200,000.00 on it now tagged "unclaimed funds" which you are legally entitled to. The bank is compelled by the laws to hand over the funds (as unclaimed funds) to the government if no claim is made immediately. Apparently, the funds belongs to one of your family members who reportedly died intestate five years ago leaving behind a substantial amount of money in the bank account unattended.

The money is yours (or your family's), not the bank's or the Government's. It's legally yours on positive proof of your identity being a distant relative of the deceased on forth degree ("statutory legacies"), a descendant from the same ancestor before the bank is compelled by law to hand the money to the government.
Important Note: we have been retained by two senior officials of the bank (The deceased Account Officers) to administer the estate and reunite you with the dormant account because you have been identified and located as the only suitable heir apparent to the estate with the same last name and our initial consultation is free, yes, it's free but we will charge a contingency fee of 5% of the total sum (GBP£12,200, 000.00) when recovered from the bank.
It might interest you to know that every year in United Kingdom thousands of people (especially foreigners) die without leaving a will or known next of kin thereby forfeiting so much money to the government as unclaimed estate. There is a time limit at the discretion of the Treasury Department when claiming such inheritance hence the need to act swiftly to reconcile this account.
In a recent news report, "there is currently more than GBP£30 billion in unclaimed money and with the total of unclaimed money rising faster than people claiming, it is projected that in the year 2020 there could be as much as GBP£40 billion of unclaimed money. Aging population is adding more significantly to this number". This is what prompted us to locate you and legally empower you to claim the estate before it becomes too late.
In compliance with standard requirements of the federal disclosure and privacy laws which prohibit us from revealing certain privileged information without due process, we intentionally left out certain information which we deemed proprietary at this point and to enable us double-check our record and ensure that you are indeed the addressee of this letter, we need you to reconfirm your information by providing us with your full names (no initial please); your date of birth; your current occupation; contact address and your telephone/fax numbers. Once we reconfirm your information and endorse same appropriately, we shall provide you with all the privileged information/legal documents relating to the deceased customer and his term-deposit account and also will give you guidelines on how we intend to realize this goal without the breach of the law.

We would respectfully request that you treat the content of this letter as privileged and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this correspondence.
Contact this law office immediately for more information and to begin the legal process of redeeming your lawful entitlement before the bank is compelled by law to hand over the money to the government. If you wish to contact me via my alternative email, feel free to do so at Fax: 709-298-3720 and bellgeo@blumail.org.
Waiting for your reply.

Most Sincerely,
Geoffrey Bell (Managing Partner)
Bell & Co.
40 Crosby Road North, LIVERPOOL,
L22 4QQ.
Tel: + (44)709-298-3720
Fax: + (44)709-298-3720

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