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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: "Fact Finding & Special Duties" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <revjohncross54@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2013 23:17:08 -0700
Subject: YOUR MESSAGE, READ OK

Greetings to you,

I am Rev. Father John Cross, a senior staff with the World Bank fact finding & special duties office. I am writing you this letter because cool
penny is better than million of dollars. It is better for one to live and die poor honest man than a rich dishonest one. The Chief security officer
(CSO) of this organization and I have arranged with an officer in computer section, engineer Peter Cliff has agreed to bring out part of your total sum
amounting to US$15 Million, why we did this is because according to information gathered from the banks/security computer, you have been waitingfor a long time to receive your money without success. As I found out that you have almost met all the statutory requirements in respect of your fund settlement. Your problem is that of interest groups. A lot of people are interested in your payment and those people are merely doing papers works with you and that is why you receive messages from different people every day.


Also we found out that some of the officials of the parasitals have been extorting a lot of money from you with the pretext of helping you to receive your money. I can assure you that this may last for years yet nothing happens, if you do not do away with those officers you call your partners, and for security reasons. Do not tell anybody that you have your money until you receive cash at your doorstep.The money is in two security proof boxes weighing 110kg each, which is 220kg for the two boxes. We went to four courier companies to make arrangements on how to ship them by courier to
you, we went to DHL, FEDEX, IAS, UPS, and all said that they must open the boxes for inspection by the customs before shipment.



This is something we want to avoid because the boxes were padded with synthetic nylon and to open them you have to cut the pad before you will meet the buttons that you will press to open the dial code-lock. There is no way you can open the boxes and be able to close them again because they were padded with machine. We told the courier services that the boxes contained film materials and when open will spoil the materials. We did not declare money because couriers do not carry money. Today a friend of mine who is diplomat disclosed to me that there is courier service they use to send diplomatic material and information from one country to another. It has diplomatic immunity and cannot check by any customs any where in the World. The name of the courier service is Diplomatic courier Service company (Dipcsco) I will meet them as soon as I have your go ahead order.


The Diplomat will help me to get immunity papers, so we do not have any problem. We have concluded that you must compensate us with five hundred thousand United States Dollars (US$500.000.00)as soon as you receive your money to this effect, you will send to us a promissory note for five hundred thousand united States Dollars (US$500.000.00) along with your identification and address for sending the boxes by courier, Please maintain top most secrecy as it may cause a lot of problem if found out that we are using this way to help you. Do not ever tell anybody about this until you have your money. I want to help you because something in me is telling me that you are an honest person when we concluded this and you send our promise. We will help to ship the final part of your money to you. Be blessed as we wait for your urgent reply. For security reason please reply
to ( revjohncross54@yahoo.co.jp )

Yours faithfully,
Rt. Rev. Father John Cross
Chairman, Fact-Finding & Special Duties Office

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