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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: "Barrow Hanson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <barrowhan12@excite.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 17 May 2011 22:14:26 -0700
Subject: Spam: Classified

A Very Good day to you,

My names are Barrister Barrow Hanson of the Hanson LLC & Solicitors in U.S.A. I actually got your contact information through the global public records while searching for a last name similar to my late client, a business magnate and a citizen of China who lived in Spain for Thirteen years. He died along with his family on the 20th of August 2008 Spanair MD-82 Plane Crash, which crashed in Madrid Barajas Airport at 16:18 Mins.

Before i proceed further, I must first make an apology for this unsolicited mail to you, I am conscious that this is certainly not a predictable way of approach to foster a relationship of trust but because of the circumstances and urgency surrounding this claim I decided to reach you via this media to join me to put claims on this vault before it is seized or confiscated by the authorities, before the catastrophe, he deposited One Trunk Box containing the sum of $22.8M (TWENTY TWO MILLION, EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS) with a Safe security company in Madrid-Spain and he did not disclose the exact content of deposited diplomatic box to the treasure house as cash but Personal valuables for security and personal reasons.

As the Confidential Attorney to my late client, the security company has mandated me to present a member of his family (heir/inheritor) to make Claims or else the Trunk Box containing the above indicated amount would be confiscated and taken to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security as unclaimed, I was given an ultimatum to look for some relatives to come for the claim or have the Trunk liquidated and made unserviceable in accordance with existing laws of Spain. After preliminary efforts of search for a direct family member which came to no avail, I decided to contact you in this regards since you bear the same last name with my deceased client.

My suggestion to you is that I will like to present you as the beneficiary to this vault, I know you may or may not be anyway related to my late client but having a common surname with him clearly indicates that the trunks would be released to you hitch free.

This transaction is 100% risk free as I have worked out all modalities to complete the operation effectively, once the diplomatic consignment is released to you, we shall divide the content in the ratio of 50% each. Kindly indicate your interest to this correspondence via either of the communication means as indicated above for further clarification. Revert back to me to as soon as the receipt of this setter is effectuated.

Yours in Service

Barrister Barrow Hanson Esq.
SOLICTOR
Email: barrowray@rediffmail.com

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