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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: "MARK ANDERSON" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mark.anderson776gmail.com@unimedgv.com.br>
Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2012 12:54:36 -0700
Subject: LETS WORK TOGETHER

With due respect,

I am Mark Anderson of Bank of Scotland, United Kingdom. I am contacting you

concerning a deceased customer and an investment he placed under our banks

management five years ago, and I would respectfully request that you keep the

contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the information

you come by as a result of this mail.

I am contacting you independently of our investigation and no one is informed of

this communication. I would like to intimate you with certain facts that I

believe would be of interest to you. In the year 2006, the subjects matter; came

to our bank to engage in business discussions. He informed us that he had a

financial portfolio of Ten million United States dollars, which he wished to

have us turn over (invest) on his behalf.

I decided to treat his case personally; I made numerous suggestions in line with

my duties as the de-facto chief Intermidiary Sales department of the bank,

especially given the volume of funds he wished to put into our bank. We met on

numerous occasions prior to any investments being placed. I encouraged him to

consider various growth funds with primeratings. The favoured route in my advice

to customers is to start by assessing data on 6000 traditional stocks and bond

managers and 2000 managers of alternative investments. Based on my advice, We

spun the money around various opportunities and made attractive margins for our

first months of operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at this point

at over One million United States Dollars, this margin was not the full

potential of the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments.

In November 2008, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed to

make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in Finland. Where he said, he

is investing with a Firm that is building a housing estate outside Helsinki for

the government of Finland. He directed that I liquidate the investment and

deposit the funds with a security firm. I informed him that Bank of Scotland

would have to make special arrangements to have this done and in order not to

circumvent due process, the bank would have to make a 9.5 % deduction from the

funds to cater for banking and statutory charges. He complained about the

charges but later came around when I explained to him the complexities of the

task he was asking of us.

Cash movement across boarders has become especially strict since the incidents

of 9/11. I contacted my affiliate and made the funds available to a security

firm. I undertook all the processes and made sure I followed his precise

instructions to the letter and had the funds deposited with the security firm.

The Security Firm is a specialist private firm that accepts deposits from high

net worth individuals and blue chip corporations that handle valuable products

or undertake transactions that need immediate access to cash. This small and

highly private organization is familiar especially to the highly placed and

well-connected organizations. In line with instructions, the money was deposited

with the security firm. The Customer told me he wanted the money there in

anticipation of his arrival from Norway later that week. This was the last

communication we had, this transpired around 25th February 2009.In June last

year, we got a call from the security firm informing us about the inactivity of

that particular portfolio.

This was an astounding position as far as I was concerned, given the fact that I

managed the private banking sector I was the only one who knew about the deposit

at the security firm, and I could not understand why the Customer had not come

forward to claim his deposit. I made futile efforts to locate the Customer. I

immediately passed the task of locating him to the internal investigations

department of Bank of Scotland Four days later, information started to trickle

in, apparently our client was dead. A person who suited his description was

declared dead of a heart attack in canne, in Southern part of France. The body

was identified and the cause of death was confirmed. The bank immediately

launched an investigation into possible surviving next of kin to alert them

about the situation and also to come forward to claim his estate. If you are

familiar with private banking affairs, those who patronize our services usually

prefer anonymity, but also some levels of detachment from conventional

processes.

In his bio-data form, he listed no next of kin. In the field of private banking,

opening an account with us means no one will know of its existence,accounts are

rarely held under a name; depositors use numbers and codes to make the accounts

anonymous. This bank also gives the choice to depositors of having their mail

sent to them or held at the bank itself, ensuring that there are no traces of

the account and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of kin. Private banking

clients apart from not nominating next of kin also usually in most cases leave

wills in our care, in this case; the deceased died without a testate. In line

with our internal processes for account holders who have passed away, we

instituted our own investigations in good faith to determine who should have

right to claim the estate. This investigation has for the past months been

unfruitful. We have scanned every continent and used our private investigation

affiliate companies to get to the root of the problem. It is this investigation

that resulted in my being furnished with your details as a possible relative of

the deceased.

My official capacity dictates that I am the only party to supervise the

investigation and the only party to receive the results of the

investigation.What this means, after investigating the last batch of names

forwarded to us as possible relatives, we have come to the conclusion that Our

dear late fellow died with no known or identifiable family member. This leaves

me as the only person with the full picture of what the prevailing situation is

in relation to the deposit and the late beneficiary of the deposit.

According to practice, The Security Firm will by the end of this year broadcast

a request for statements of claim to Bank of Scotland, failing to receive viable

claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to Bank of Scotland. This

will result in the money entering the Bank of Scotland accounting system and the

portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the private banking division.

This will not happen if I have my way. What I wish to relate to you will smack

of unethical practice but I want you to understand something. It is only an

outsider to the banking world who finds the internal politics of the banking

world aberrational. The world of private banking especially is fraught with huge

rewards for those that occupy certain offices and oversee certain portfolios.

You should have begun by now to put together the general direction of what I

propose. There is Ten million dollars deposited in a security firm, I alone have

the deposit details and they will release the deposit to no one unless I

instruct them to do so. I alone know of the existence of this deposit for as far

as Bank of Scotland is concerned.

The transaction with our late customer concluded when I sent the funds to the

security firm, all outstanding interactions in relation to the file are just

customer services and due process. The security Firm has no single idea of

what's the history or nature of the deposit. They are simply awaiting

instructions to release the deposit to any party that come forward. This is the

situation. This bank has spent great amounts of money trying to track this man's

family; they have investigated for months and have found no family. The

investigation has come to an end.

My proposal;I am prepared to place you in a position to instruct the security

Firm to release the deposit to you as the closest surviving relative. Upon

receipt of the deposit I am prepared to share the money with you. That is:I will

simply nominate you as the next of kin and have them release the deposit to you

and share the proceeds with you in a percentage we will arrive at taking into

consideration our individual level commitment.I would have gone ahead to ask

that the funds be released to me,but that would have drawn a straight line to me

and my involvement in claiming the deposit. But presenting you as a relative

with the right to claim the deposit as a next of kin will mask my involvement

and participation in diverting the deposit for personal use.You will get all the

documents needed to effect this claim immediately you notify me of your

acceptance to claim this deposit for our mutual benefit.

I assure you that I could have the deposit released to you within a few days. I

will simply inform the bank of the final closing of the file relating to the

deceased. I will then officially communicate with The Security Firm and instruct

them to release the deposit to you. With these two things: all is done.

The alternative would be for us to have The Security Firm direct the funds to

another bank with you as account holder. This way there will be no need for you

to think of receiving the money from The Security Company. We can fine-tune this

based on our interactions. 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 myself 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'way once in a lifetime. I

cannot let this chance pass me by, for once I find myself in total control of my

destiny. This 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 provide them

with new opportunities. 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 and alerting my bank. I am the only one who knows of this

situation, good fortune has blessed you with a luck that has planted you into

the center of relevance in my life. Let's share the blessing. If you find

yourself able to work with me, contact me through this email account. If you

give me positive signals, I will initiate this process towards a conclusion. I

wish to inform you that should you contact me via official channels; I will deny

knowing you and about this project. I repeat, I do not want you contacting me

through my official phone lines nor do I want you contacting me through my

official email account. Contact me only through the numbers I will provide for

you and also through this email address:mark.anderson@skymail.mn. I do not want

any direct link between you and myself. My official lines are not secured lines

as they are periodically monitored to assess our level of customer care in line

with our Total Quality Management Policy.Please observe this instruction

religiously.

Please,again, note I am a family man; I have a wife and children. 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 clients. Do not betray my confidence.

Sincerly,
Mark Anderson

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