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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: "sol young" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <solyoung@mail.mn>
Date: Sat, 3 Mar 2012 07:10:32 -0800
Subject: Inheritance Fund (Next Of Kin)

Dear ,
I am Mr. Sol Young. I am working as a Branch Manager with the * UBA* UNITED BANK OF AFRICA, Apapa. For your information, there was one Japanese business merchant that based here. His name is Mr. Toshio Kuzito. He had a fishery company here. He was banking in my branch and I was directly in charge of his account because he could not speak English fluently and requested that he want me as the branch manager to be directly responsible for his account.
As the custodian of his account, he entrusted most of his banking documents in my care to safe-keep for him in our strong room. He lodged the sum of Ten Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars in a fixed bonded investment account to run for Ten years from 1996 to 2007. Mr. Toshio disappeared without any information for a long time.
I thought that he has gone back to his country Japan to be back this year when his fixed deposit investment will mature but upon maturity of his fixed Deposit bonded investment nobody saw him, the management at our head office insisted that I must fetch him to claim his invested money with the accrued interest. I traced his address as written in his banking documents only to discover that he, his wife and only daughter died in the plane crash of 2002. From my search, I discovered that Mr. Kuzito was among those that died in a plane crash involving EAS Airline on the 4th of May 2002. For your reference on this air accident, please click here.
The person now occupying his residence revealed to me also that the government sold the house to him and also sold his fishery company and handed over the money they realized from the two sales to Japanese Embassy here. I have reported to the Management of our bank that Mr. Toshio is dead and the Management of our bank has insisted that I must provide any relative of Mr. Toshio to claim his money. The Management of our bank said that I was the person that introduced Mr. Toshio to our bank and as such that I must provide any of his relative to claim his investment. The Management of our bank threatened that if I don’t provide any relative of Mr. Toshio in six months, that they will transfer the money of Mr. Toshio to Federal Government Reserve account for ammunition importation for the military.
Based on the above information, I have decided to link anybody to stand as Mr. Toshio’s next of kin to claim the money he deposited in our bank as Fixed Investment since it is obvious now that nobody knew about it. Do not worry that you are not Japanese because you can still stand as Mr. Toshio’s next of kin under our banking laws here. Relative or Next of Kin as our bank interprets represents adopted persons, In-laws, friends, business associates and so on so you don’t need to worry about not having any relationship with Mr. Toshio. I will provide you with the investment documents which Mr. Toshio entrusted in my care for safe keeping. Since the Management of our bank is not aware that I am in possession of Mr. Toshio’s relevant documents, if you present it to them, they will have no doubt that you are indeed close to Mr. Toshio.
Note that there is no risk involved in this transaction, as I will give you all information you may need for the successful execution of this deal with me. I contacted you in trust because I don’t have any foreign friend due to the fact that I have not traveled abroad before. This transaction will go through normal banking process. I will direct you on how to apply for the claim of this money to our head office as soon as you indicate you interest. I hope to resign from this banking job as soon as we complete this deal to come over to your country for investment of my share. We shall share this money equal between two of us as soon as we complete the deal.
Regards, Mr. Sol Young.

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