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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" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <christ213philips@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:04:15 +0100
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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