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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: "DR.FRANK LEE" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <dr.franklee45321@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2011 02:20:14 -0800
Subject: DEAR BENEFICIARY

Dear Beneficiary,
 
 
I hope that this correspondence is received with the urgency and expediency required.
It has come to the notice of the Board of Trustees at the CBN that your present inheritance claims application being handled by the Remmitting Bank in Nigeria is experiencing some man made irregularities.
To this effect,it has become neccesary for the Board of Trustees to invite trained Fund Transfer Specalists from the United States to resolve and regularize your fund release with immediate effect.
 
We at Frank-lee & Associates have been duly consulted by the CBN Board of Trustees and have been fully informed about how the staff of the remmitting bank have been taking advantage of you by telling you to pay unneccesarily exhorbitant charges which will only make your fund payment a long drawn out process.
 
Due to this we have decided to step into the process of your fund transfer to enable your funds to be transfered within the soonest possible time you are to get back to us immediatly without needing to pay all the huge sums of monies that are being demanded from you by the remmitting bank.
 
All proccesses to have your funds paid to you imediately through the CBN's Laison Remmittance Office in New York have been initiated to cut out unneccesary costs.You are advised to keep this communication highly confidential as the CBN Board of Trustees have asked us to resolve this fund payment independent of the office of the CBN Gorvernor to identify the principal participants in this unethical payment procedure.
 
Furthermore,you are hereby advised to pay no furtherfees or charges to the Remmitting Bank in Nigeria as they shall no longer be handling your payment process.
We shall await your immedite correspondence with your direct telephone numbers for re-confirmation to to my confidential email address at (dr.franklee567@hotmail.com) so that we may conclude your payment immediately.
 
Yours Sincerely,
DR.FRANK LEE

Anti-fraud resources: