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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: "Nicholas Purnell Esq." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <npurnellesq5@consultant.com>
Date: Sat, 19 May 2012 18:30:39 +0200
Subject: IMPORTANT PARTNERSHIP NOTIFICATION

Hello,

Before I proceed I must first apologize for this unsolicited letter to you, I am aware that this is certainly not a conventional way of approach to establish a relationship of trust, but you will realize the need for my action. I am a LEGAL PRACTITIONER´S & FINANCIAL SOLICITOR´S. Actually; I got your contact information through the public records while searching for a relative from the same country to my late client, a business magnate in Europe, for Fifteen years, but unfortunately died along with his family during the Tsunami catastrophic, which occurred on Sunday, 26 December 2004.

Before his death; he deposited One Vault, containing the sum of TEN MILLION AND EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND US DOLLARS with a Financial Company in Europe. The Holding Financial Company have mandated me to present any family heir/inheritor for claims, before the vault gets confiscated or reverts to the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, as unclaimed vault. I contacted you because I've search for any of my late client's relative to no avail, as he did not declare any name in the official paper works during the time he deposited the funds in a vault.

Against this backdrop, my suggestion to you is that I will like you to stand as the beneficiary to my late client since you both are from the same country so that the fund will be released to you. With my position as his lawyer, I will obtain relevant documents that will assist your claims, and facilitate the release of the funds to you if only you can give me your consent to use your name and address as the beneficiary.

Be assured that this transaction is 100% risk free, as all modalities to actualize the operation effectively are already in place for you to release the funds via bank-to-bank wire transfer. Once the funds are released to you, we will share it in two equal half (50/50) ($5.4 Million each)

Kindly indicate your response to this letter by providing me with only your FULL NAME and ADDRESS for further clarifications.

However, please be kind to get back to me, if you are not willing to work with me, so that I can further my search for another partner.

Kind Regards,
Nick.

Anti-fraud resources: