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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: "SAID MAMOUD" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <saidmamoud@live.com>
Date: Sat, 3 Sep 2011 09:52:32 -0400
Subject: TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN......

To whom it may concern.
 
I am Said Mamoud a native of Misrata and a son of one of the leading opposing figure to the government of Col Moammar Ghadaffi.I am 19 years of age and an undergraduate in the Qar Yunis University in Benghazi.Following the political resentment and uprising in Libya which has inadventently degenerate into a civil war, the Col Moammar Ghaddafi regime announced what is tagged the total massacre of his political opponents and who he had called dissidents to his rule in Libya. In this event, the Ghadaffi government declare the total whip out of the prominent leaders in Misrata wherein my father has been one among these leading figure.
 
On a fateful day while in school, watching the unfolding events going in my country on the television particularly on the Aljazeera i saw a caption on the area around  my neighbourhood close to my father's house where the pro-Ghaddafi forces had surrounded with their weapons of destruction and something struck my mind of my family and  immediately i received a message on my phone that the pro-Ghaddaffi had just struck my neighbourhood and that our house was one of the major target by the Ghadaffi  forces and to make the whole world down on me, my father was brutally eliminated from the surface of the earth this ugly events made my mother collapsed seeing her  husband swim in an ocean of blood and was rushed to a nearby hospital by a member of the Red Cross but unfortunately she could not live to explain it all as death claimed her away.
 
The Red Cross team and other people on rescue mission took my two kid sisters away for proper care where i often go to pay them visitation and until i discover how  endanger my life could be, that i had to flee away for dear live to a neighbouring country specifically Ireland as a refugee. I have been living as a refugee since the whole incidents happened that i could not even go back to my country in search of my sisters who i believed remain as the only family i have on earth. During the lifetime of my late father, he was an industrialist, a businessman and a philanthropist who owned a large steel producing company and other assets measurable in monetary terms.
 
Prior to his demise, he had a financial portfolio of $35.8 million United States Dollars, which he deposited with a financial firm (United Assets Management Sarl) in United Kingdom as part of his investment. However, i have always known of this investment abroad since i was 14 years because, my father of a blessed  memory had always made it known to me that on my graduation from the university and after my master in my course of study, i will be representing his business interest  abroad. How painful is death to have short-lived his dream.
 
I have made a relentless efforts so far to contact my father's attorney who is in charge of his estate in the person of Sir Charles Broughton whose office is in London  United Kingdom to know more about my late father's wealth and how i could go about claiming the estate but unfortunately, the attorney brought to my notice that he  could only proceed on handling over the estate to me when i have attained the age of 24 or wherein a person of a  full contractual capacity is brought in to fulfill the  obligation as stated in the will left by my late father. As  further explained by the attorney, the person of full contractual capacity could be a relation or a trust.
 
I have been a person of desperate soul to get rid of my father's estate because the attorney himself is an aged man in his late 70s and am afraid death could visit him at any point in time and this might jeopardize my chance of claiming my father's estate.
 
At this point i am consciously taking my time to source for a very business minded person, who is also a God fearing and who will create time to rescue me from this dilemma to claim my late father's estate and also a person who will guide me on a flourishing business to invest my own share of the claim. You can get in touch with me on my personal email address: saidmamoud@live.com  so that i can furnish you with the information to reach the attorney as i had earlier mentioned for more detailed
information.
 
sincerely,
 
Said Mamoud

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