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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: "Mr. John Galvan" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <JohnGalvan@representative.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2012 00:05:41 -0800
Subject: GREETINGS FROM:Mr. John Galvan

Good Day,

I wish to introduce myself to you, Am Mr. John Galvan a staff of a private offshore bank (A I G Private Bank) United Kingdom office. I am the head of the Accounts Department. I am pleased to get across to you for a very urgent and profitable business proposal which I believe will profit the both of us after completion. I contacted you after a careful thought that you might be capable of handling this business transaction, which I will explain below. The sum of (£15,500,000.00 Million Pounds) is floating unclaimed in my bank as all efforts to get across to the relatives of our client who deposited the money have hit the stones.

There is this client Mr. Roger Ian Wright a US businessman, founder of a Sao Paulo-based investment company. On the 22nd of May 2009, Mr. Roger Ian Wright, his wife and his two children all died in a King Air B350 plane crash seaside resort town of Trancoso, in the state of Bahia. You can find below the links pertaining to this accident.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/05/23/2579118.htm?section=justin

All attempts to trace his next of kin were fruitless. My position here at my office requires me to investigate and I therefore made further investigations and discovered that Mr. Roger Ian Wright did not declare any next of kin or relation in all his official documents, including his bank deposit paperwork in my bank. According to the British Law the money will revert to the ownership of the British government if nobody applies to claim the fund. To prevent this from happening I have decided to seek your assistance to have you stand as his next of kin so that the said fund (£15,500,000.00 Million Pounds) would be released in your name as the next of kin and paid into your account. All documents and proof that will have you claim this fund will be obtained legally with out stress as long as you adhere to the map out plan.

I intend to give 40% of the total funds as compensation for your assistance. I will notify you on the full transaction on receipt of your response if interested, and I shall send you the details and necessary procedures with which to make the transfer.

Please email me at (JohnGalvan@representative.com) for details.

Should you be interested? Please send me your:
1. Full names
2. Private phone number
3. Current residential address
4. Occupation

I hope your response indicates a good beginning for something important to come.

Kind Regards,
Mr. John Galvan

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