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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: "Engr. Bruce Brand" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bruce.brand.engr@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:50:04 +0200
Subject: Please Respond Urgently

DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR
P O Box 3511
Johannesburg
2000
South Africa

Good Day,
How are you and your family?
I am Bruce Brand.
I am the data base administrator of a bank situated in Johannesburg South Africa which I am yet to disclose to you until you fully indicate your interest in this business proposal which I am relating to you because of security reason as I am a staff in the same bank.

I know you will be surprised to get a message from me but never mind because the only thing that brought you to me is business assistance which I believe you will really give a taught if I give you the detail.

I have worked in this bank for 7 years as the database administrator and my job is to create users and also upgrade and manage indexes of the database of this
bank.

The bank itself is going into distress and I know that because of my vital position as the database administrator and it is expected that with this global recession, the bank may loose its ground any moment from now.

During my last maintenance of the database, as I was backing up the files in the database, an account popped out which happens to have popped out due to the fact that the account has become dormant and there is a program that I created in the database that is responsible for extracting any account that has not been functional for over a period of 3 years and the program automatically removes values from the user making the account dormant and inactive.

I immediately accessed the files of the account registration and found out the owner did not administer any next of kin or beneficiary to the account opening documents that was imputed in his account folder.

I then ran a search and got his contact address in Tanzania and I made contacts to that address and was notified that the house which was rented by the account owner has been sold over 2 years ago and was duly informed by the landlord of the house that the person I was asking about had died some years ago.

I have run a trace and found out about the origin of his death and you can read the news link below for more details of his death.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ news/worldnews/ africaandindianocean/tanzania/ 1501084/Tycoon-dies-with- family-in-Tanzania-safari- plane-crash.html

His name is Mr. Alan Williams and his bank account has a balance of US$19, 500 000 00 ( nineteen million, five hundred thousand U.S Dollar)

I want you to be well informed that no one in the bank knows about this because immediately I got the full information about his death, I encrypted his account and hid it in one of the folders in the database where no one could find it because I know that if this information gets first to one of the officials of the bank, they will immediately grab this money and get rich.

As the database administrator of the bank, I have full access to all the files and folders in the database of the bank and I have the privilege of inputting ,editing and deleting files and information in the database and I can put your name as the next of kin so that we can claim this money instantly without any problem because it will be clear to everybody in the bank and even the whole world that the late owner of the account made you his next of kin because it will be in the banks database and nobody will ever get into trouble.

I can’t do it by myself because I am the database administrator and it will never work if I am directly involved and also I need a foreigner for this to happen.

I have everything planned out and if you are willing to assist me, email me back so that I will give you my private telephone number so that we will discuss in more detail and introduce ourselves fully to each other.

Thank you for taking your time to read this message and I will give you my direct telephone number immediately I get your response.



Have a wonderful day.

With much respect and regard,

Eng. Bruce Brand
(O.C.A , O.C.P ,D.B.A)

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