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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.Frank Brandon" <frankbrandon55@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 8 Aug 2011 13:59:31 +0100 (BST)
Subject: VERY URGENT


Hello dear,
How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family? I know that this letter will come to you as a surprise as we don't know ourselves before,but pay attention and understand my reason of contacting you.Please don't be angry with me my dear if you see this message in Spam/junk of your mailbox, it will be because I sent it with slow internet connection but be rest assured that it is real and a genuine business.

I am Mr.Frank Brandon,from London .I am an account officer to Mr. Rafik Hariri, Born in Lebanon in 1944, The late Rafik Hariri was a Lebanese self-made billionaire and business tycoon, and was five times Prime Minister of Lebanon. You can view this site for confirmation.

http://www.rhariri.com/general.aspx?pagecontent=biography

I got your mail through my private search and out of Desperation I decided to reach you through this medium. Mr. Rafiak Hariri deposited 36,759,000 million British Pounds in a bank here in London and I want to invest this money in you country, The need to move out this money arose when the Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that some of the money held in dormant accounts would be used to fund youth and community projects. you can confirm this in he website below

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4017381.stm

I am in a sincere desire of your humble assistance in this regard. Now permit me to ask these few questions:-

(1) Can I completely trust you?
(2) I am ready to offer you 35% of this (36, 759 000.00), I hope it is
acceptable by you?

Please, consider this and get back to me as soon as possible for more details.


Thank you so much,
Mr.Frank Brandon.

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