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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: "Mr Arinze Thomas" <arinzethomas111@yahoo.co.uk>
Reply-To: arinze_thomas@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:46:58 +0200
Subject: Let me hear from you


Dear friend,

I am contacting you to propose a deal that will be of high benefit to both
of us. I am Mr Arinze Thomas. I am the personal attorney to late MR.
BRONISLAW GEREMEK, a Polish citizen who was a Category "A" contractor to
the Nigerian Government before he died in a car crash on July 13, 2008.

I am contacting you because the payment of Twenty Two Million United
States Dollars for the last contract he did for Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2006. INEC is ready to pay for the contract
now but there is no one to receive the payment because he has no
Next-of-Kin in his file at INEC, hence I have been mandated by INEC as his
attorney to provide an “appointed Next-of-Kin” for the claim of the money.
On this capacity, therefore, I seek your consent to present you as an
appointed Next-of-Kin, so that this contract payment will be released and
paid to you.

Once the payment is made to you, we will share it at the ratio of 50/50.
That is, Eleven Million for you and Eleven Million for me. I must let you
know that your name and place of residence does not matter in this
process. Understand that we will not be doing wrong to humanity by
claiming the payment because if we do not claim it, the government will
retain it as nobody is to receive the funds as his next-of-kin. I want to
assure you that this will be done under a legitimate arrangement that will
protect you from any breach of the law. I will provide all the legal
documents to back up the claim. The most important thing I need is your
honest cooperation.

If you are interested in this offer, kindly indicate by sending the
following details to me for immediate submission of claim application to
the INEC. The details I need from you are: (1) your full name. (2) Your
full address. (3) Your age & occupation. (4) Your private telephone and
fax numbers. Let me hear from you.

Best regards,
Mr Arinze Thomas.


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