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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: "Barrister David Lopez Esq" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <davlopez4@aol.com>
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2013 22:43:33 +0200
Subject: Interested?

Dear Friend,
 
My name is Barrister David Lopez Esq of the MMS Law Firm in Madrid .
I actually got your email address through the Internet public records while
searching for a foreign partner that will assist me with the transfer of
funds of a business magnate by name Smith Goshn who lived in Spain for
Thirteen years. He died along with his family during the Tsunami catastrophe
which occurred December 2004.
Before his death, he deposited the sum of ($13,300,000.00 ) Thirteen
Million ,Three Hundred Thousand United states dollars, with a Financial
/Security institutions here in Spain. The financial institution being aware of his
sudden death , have mandated me to present a member of his family
(heir/inheritor) or next of kin to make Claims of the fund, otherwise it
will be forfeited and reverts to the treasury of the Spanish Ministry of
finance & the Central Bank , as unclaimed. This is because in accordance
with the Spanish law, such fortune is automatically bequeathed to the
government if there is no heir or next of kin to the deceased that would
surface to claim the fortune. However, this law is unjust and inhuman as
it often creates an avenue for the top officials of some financial
institutions to divert such fortunes for their own selfish use. On that
ground, I decided to search for any of my late client's relative which has
been proved abortive as he did not declare any next of kin!
, partner or relatives in the official paper including the deposit
certificate and did not make any will (en-state) with us.
    
Against this backdrop, I decided to contact you to join me to put claims
on this deposit before it`s forfeited to the authorities, my suggestion to
you is that I will like to present you as the beneficiary to this deposit,
since both of you are both foreign nationals, I know you may not in a
anyway related to my late client, but By virtue of my position as his
personal Attorney, I will now place your name as the next of kin/ foreign
partner to my late client. I will prepare every relevant legal document
that will assist your claims and facilitate the release of the fund to you
without any breach of the law.
Note, this transaction is 100% risk free, there is no single risk
connected to this business as I have worked out all modalities to complete
the transaction successfully. Once the fund is released to you, we shall
share in the ratio of 50% for me, 50% for you . If my
proposal is acceptable to you, reply via my private email address:
davlopez4@aol.com  for further discussion on how to proceed.
   
Best regards.
Barrister David
davlopez4@aol.com

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