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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: "Federico Tugnoli" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <tugnoli_federico@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:20:17 -0700
Subject: Private Mail....................

Good day,
Firstly, I apologize for sending you this sensitive information via E-mail Instead of a Certified mail/Post-mail.
This is due to the urgency and importance of the information. I humbly crave your indulgence to read this e-mail with all seriousness of purpose devoid of any doubt in your mind because this project is based on Trust, Confidentiality and Sincerity of purpose in order to have an acceptable meeting of the minds.
Although we never met before, but I have every reason to believe that you are a highly respected personality, considering the fact that I got your E- mail address through the Internet, my online network, while searching for a reliable and reputable person to handle urgent and serious transaction.
I am a senior manager accounts/audit in one of the big banks here in Italy.
I am writing following an opportunity in my office that will be of immense benefit to
both of us.
In my department we discovered an abandoned sum of 13,000,000.00 EUR
(Thirteen Million Euros Only) in an account that belongs to one of our Foreign customers
who unfortunately lost his life on his way to the Airport of Bologna. Since we got information
about his death, we have been expecting his next of kin or relatives to come over and claim
his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as Next of kin or relation
to the deceased as indicated in our banking guidelines.
Unfortunately I discovered that his supposed next of kin being his only daughter and wife died
along with him in the auto crash leaving nobody with the knowledge of this fund behind for claim.
It is therefore upon this discovery that I and his account manager now decided to make business
with you and to release the money/funds to you as the next of kin or beneficiary of the funds for
safety keeping and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this
money to go back into Government treasury as unclaimed bill.
The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such money remained after
seven years the money will be transferred into Banking treasury as unclaimed
funds.
We agreed that 30% of these funds would be for you as foreign partner, 10% mapped out to repay
any expenses that we will incur which we took care out of our personal savings while the balance will be for us.
After the transaction is completed and funds are in your account, I and my partner will visit your country for the disbursement according to the percentages indicated above once this money/funds gets into your Account.
Please we need transparency and honesty to be our watchdog.
To commence this transaction, we require you to immediately Indicate your
interest by a return e-mail and enclose the Following information:
1. Full name
2: Your private telephone and Fax numbers.
3. Occupations and Nationality.
4. Date of Birth
5, Present Location
Note: I want to assure you that this transaction is confidential and risk free. As soon as you receive this mail please click on reply and reply this message.
We will discuss much in details when I receive your response.
Thanks and good luck to us.
Best regards,
Mr. Federico Tugnoli

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