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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Christopher Philips" <christ01philips@gmail.com>
Reply-To: cht113phil@hotmail.co.uk
Date: Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:43:18 -0500
Subject: Hello




Hello,

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 be rest assured that it is real and a genuine business. I am
Mr. Christopher Philips 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 6,759,000
million British Pounds in our bank here in london and I want to invest
this money in your country, The need to move out this money arose when The
British Government working with some NGO'S through the unclaimed Assets
Register, to confiscate and divert unclaimed depositor's funds to help the
bad economy.

Read this article below:

http://www.unclaimedassets.co.uk/trace_forgotten_funds.htm

I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this email
private and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a
result of this email. I'm contacting you independently of our
investigation and no one is informed of this communication between you and
I. I would like to intimate you with facts that I believe would be of
interest to you.I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have
them release the deposit to you. I assure you that I can have the deposit
released to you within few days once you accept this proposal. Upon
receipt of the deposit, I'm prepared to share the money with you 50/50.

I am aware of the consequences of this proposal. I ask that if you find no
interest in this project that you should discard this mail. I ask that you
do not be vindictive and destructive. If my offer is of no appeal to
you,delete this message and forget I ever contacted you. Do not destroy my
career because you do not approve of my proposal. You may not know this
but people like me who have made tidy sums out of comparable situations
run the whole private banking sector. I am not a criminal and what I do,I
do not find against good conscience, this may be hard for you to
understand, but the dynamics of my industry dictates that I make this
move.

Such opportunities only come ones in a lifetime. I cannot let this chance
pass me by, for once; I have found myself in total control of my destiny.
These chances won't pass me by. I ask that you do not destroy my chance,
if you will not work with me let me know and let me move on with my life
but do not destroy me. I am a family man and this is an opportunity to
change my life for good. Moreover, my 12 yrs old daughter, my only
child,is suffering from Leukemia and she needs an urgent bone marrow
surgery in California as advised by my family doctor. But it will cost me
around US$100,000.00 to take her for the surgery. And that is why I’m
eager to utilize this opportunity since our family doctor has given my
daughter just three months to live.

There is a reward for this project and it is a task well worth
undertaking. I have evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is
from you refusing to work with me. I am the only one who knows of this
situation, good fortune has blessed you with a name that has planted you
into the center of relevance in my life. Let’s share the blessing.

If you give me positive signals, I will initiate this process towards a
conclusion.

I send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the
consequences, but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained
and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. This
is the one truth I have learned from my private banking customers. Do not
betray my confidence. If we can be of one accord, we should plan a
meeting, soon.

Thank you so much,

Mr. Christopher Philips.



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