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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: "Chu Woo" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <WCinvestiment@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Dec 2011 08:28:56 +0100
Subject: ATTN: From The Desk of Chu Woo

I am Chu Woo, I am involved with the Guiyang Intellectual property bureau which is in the Guizhou province of mainland, China. I am getting in touch with you regarding property investment that was facilitated by myself and my colleagues a few years ago. We had started this process with a Mr Scott a while back.

I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this mail. I contact you independently and no one is informed of this communication.

In 2007, following government directive on sale of certain empty property, we as government officials made sure that the sale of a particular block of 80 flats in Guiyang was made to a certain individual. The whole essence of this was the fact that we were able to down value the property because it needed a bit of work. With the survey approved, the property was sold to our nominated investor for $17,000,000 (seventeen million united states dollars). This obviously was not the actual value of the property.

With an investment of $5,000,000 (five million united states dollars). We were able to bring the property back to government acceptable standard and then put it immediately back in the market for $60,000,000 (sixty million dollars). This has been approved in principle. A consortium of Japanese investors are ready to make payment hence the reason for this communication. Due to the fact that the original investor is a foreigner, proceeds from the sale has to go overseas.
We are government officials, that means we are not in any way to be linked with the sale of the property. We had to use a foreign individual from the same country as you, also I believe in a similar industry as well. The process was started with Mr. Scott, However in 2009 August he had an automobile accident while on holiday in Dubai. He has passed on. Hence the reason for contacting you.

What I propose is this: I now seek your permission to present you as a beneficiary, I need you to help complete this transaction by receiving the funds. We will get a lawyer over here that will get all the documents in your name as the sole beneficiary of this estate. This is a straight forward transaction. All the hard work has been done. Due diligence and compliance procedures have been carried out to get to this stage. For all your effort I propose that you will get 40% of the profit. As it is now, the profit is $38,000,000 (thirty eight million united states dollars).

Nobody is getting hurt; this is a lifetime opportunity for us. I would want us to keep communication for now strictly by the email address below. I repeat, I do not want you contacting me through my official phone lines nor do I want you contacting me through my official email account. Contact me only through the numbers I will provide for you and also through this email address (WCinvestiment@gmail.com).

Please, again, note I am a family man; I have a wife and children. I send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to the consequences. Do not betray my confidence. If we can be of one accord, we should act swiftly on this. Please pardon my writing mistakes, if any. Please get back to me immediately on my private E-mail address: WCinvestiment@gmail.com

I await your response.

Chu Woo

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