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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: Jerry Morgan <sro.rockson1@gmail.com>
Reply-To: difcapt@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2012 05:57:27 -0500
Subject: Please Pay Good Attention

Dear,

Kindly take a little time to read this mail and respond accordingly. In as
much as this may come to you as a surprise, kindly pay good attention to it
as opportunity they say comes but ones.


Without taking much of your time, i wish to introduce myself. My name is
Jerry Morgan, a British and a banker by profession. I worked with NatWest
Bank, London for ten years and in the cause of my work, i discovered so
many bank accounts that have been dormant for ages. This is owing to many
facts such as death of account holder, etc.

One particular account caught my attention as the sum of Twenty Million
Pounds (GBP 20,000,000.00) in it was too much to be abandoned without a
cause. This raised my curiosity and i personally investigated the account
to come to realization that the account holder was a foreign businessman
who has died in his country as a result of car crash. His family and
relatives does not know that this account existed and as such cannot put
any claim.

The name he wrote as his next of kin upon opening the account is fictitious
as my investigation turned out that such a person is non existent. I have
for a couple of years now been searching for someone who has the same name
as the next of kin and lucky enough i stumbled into you.


As it stands now, all i need from you is your consent to front you as the
next of kin so that we can make claim of the funds. Be rest assured that
there is no risk associated with this as all necessary findings have been
made by me.


I look forward to you reply to enable me throw more light on the process of
claim application and for us to agree on how to share the money once it is
claimed.


Thanks in anticipation of your urgent response.

Yours faithfully,

Jerry Morgan.

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