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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: "Rt Hon George Osborne MP" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <g.osborne@gmx.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:10:11 +0200
Subject: Read Instruction

HM Treasury's Correspondence and Enquiry Unit
From The Office of Rt Hon George Osborne MP
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Horse Guards Road
London SW1A 2HQ
Tel:+44 (0) 700 580 0054
 
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
 
Our Ref: UK/TREAS/898ATCP
File Code No: HM/IMF/7890/121
 
 
COMMITTEE FOR FOREIGN PAYMENT RESOLUTION PANEL ON WITHHELD PAYMENTS
HM Treasury, in full Her Majesty's Treasury, informally The Treasury, is the United Kingdom government department responsible for developing and executing the British government's public finance policy and economic policy. The Treasury maintains the Combined Online Information System (COINS) containing a detailed analysis of departmental spending under thousands of category headings.
 
Have you made any past attempt to claim lottery winning funds, contact funds or any inheritance fund on your name from Africa, Asia and within the United Kingdom without any success? Have you lost money on the cause of claiming your funds? We have set up a panel to review unsuccessful individual transactions with international inheritance/contract insurance and lottery organizations including foreign banks especially in Africa, Asia and within the United Kingdom.
 
>From the investigations made on your case, we believe that you are not aware of the present state of your funds or maybe your email account was hacked by criminals who tried to divert your contract/inheritance fund to another unsolicited account claimed to be provided by you. Conclusively, we discovered that your unpaid fund claim application requirements were not properly documented for an international fund transfer to your designated account.
 
Such transfer suspension was placed on your fund because majority of these international fund remittance of over the total sum of $500,000 and above paid to private European/Non European resident accounts abroad, usually carried out by foreign Banks, private or commercial companies etc, were never properly applied for payment by the fund beneficiary.
 
Also, the stipulated amount meant to be paid to you has been reduced to the total sum of Fifteen Million & Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars ($15,500,000.00 USD). It is very important we state that you will never receive your unpaid funds through any foreign bank until you verify that you are the original owner of this email address by providing us the information below;
 
- A scanned copy of your international passport or drivers license:
- Your direct mobile telephone number:
- Your present home address for document delivery:
 
 
Failure to properly apply for your payment through this verification process will continue to nullify your chances of receiving your unpaid fund, and this fund will be confiscated and made to be forfeited under the Money Laundering and other Financial Crime Prohibition Act of 2003.
 
 
Regards,
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Rt Hon George Osborne MP (Conservative)
HM Treasury Chancellor's Private Office.
 
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Disclaimer: The information in this email and in any files transmitted with it, is intended only for the addressee and contains confidential and/or privileged material. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorized. If you receive this in error, please contact the sender immediately and delete the material from your computer. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is strictly prohibited.
 

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