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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: "MELVIN CLARK" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <info_malclark8@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 16:48:49 -0000
Subject: Your Request!!!

Good Morning Dearest,
I am sending you this email with the spirit of happiness and with great amount of trust sequels to our telephone discussion and you instructed me to send you this information's by e-mail

Am 31years old, my name is Melvin Clark, from Liberia . I am the eldest son of the late Captain Gordon Clark, the former Director of Ministry of Mining and Solid Mineral, Liberia . I am now in Ghana as a refugee in the Ghana refugee camp. Please, I want to confide on you to help me solve this problem, which I have. My late father deposited a consignment with a security & finance company before the war in my country, and when the fight was ablaze, my parent was shot dead by the rebels and I and my sister escaped to exile by the assistant of The United Nations peace keeping soldiers and we were brought to Ghana to seek asylum under Ghana Government UN refugees statue.

One of my late father's friends, Mr. Yang Lee is suppose to receive the consignment for him in Asia, all effort to contact Mr. Yang Lee has proved abortive but I still remain the next of kin to empower a new foreign partner to assist and work on behalf of me, it is on this note that I am contacting you to please assist me to make claims of the consignments from the security company and help us invest the funds for the benefit of my future.i want to invest in Thailand or America and Europe aswelll.Presently the Consignment some of them are in Security company In Belgium.

I have personally contacted the security Company and they have assured me that the consignment is intact and its ready for release and delivery of the consignment to any of my late father partner or anybody I empower to received the consignment in any part of Asia, America or Europe as it was instructed by my late father before he die, now what I intend to do now is to empower you for the claim of this consignment on behalf of me in your country.

Please, this is confidential, and I have not told anybody before about this, the consignment contains 50Carats of white rough-cut diamond gemstones of Diamond Creek, Lofa County Origin and sum funds which according to what I see from my late fathers will(briefcase),the money is two silver boxes. I count on you and i trust you because am sure and i have the believed that you can do it and be honest with me.we shall share 50/50% of the total funds and goods in the security company provided you will not cheat me.

At the moment i did not have any financial power to handle this transaction alone and that is why am getting you involve to help me with one mind and solve this problem for me. I am sending this email on public cafe, I cannot say everything here for confidential reason, but please you can give me your telephone number and i will call you immediately. Attachment is my international passport and all the documents i saw on my father briefcase, I want you to check it up and let me know,so that we can proceed with the legal matter to make the change of ownership to your name as my new beneficiary and owner of the consignment for onward shipment and investment..

Thank you, with hope of your help.God bless.

Yours truly,
Melvin Clark

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