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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: "Bank of China (BOC)" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bank_chinaboc@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 3 Jul 2013 17:54:10 +0800
Subject: Project Mail

Good day,

Pardon me for not having the pleasure of knowing your mindset before
making you this offer and it is utterly confidential and genuine by
virtue of its nature. I cannot imagine the surprise this will bring to
you, but please be rest assured is with good faith and intentions from
a friend in dare need of your assistance. I am a, staff of Private
Banking Service at the Bank of China (BOC). I am contacting you
concerning our customer and, an investment placed under our banks
management 5 years ago. I would respectfully request that you keep the
contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the
information you come by as a result of this mail. I contacted you
independently of our investigation and no one is informed of this
communication. I would like to intimate you with certain facts that I
believe would be of interest to you. In 2005, the subject matter;
ref:bb/boc/bank/0012 came to our bank to engage in business
discussions with our Private Banking Services Department.He informed
us that he had a financial portfolio of US$7.370 million United States
Dollars,which he wished to have us turn over (invest)on his behalf. I
was the officer assigned to his case; I made numerous suggestions in
line with my duties as the de-facto chief operations officer of the
Private Banking Services Department, especially given the volume of
funds he wished to put into our bank. We met on numerous occasions
prior to any investments being placed.

I encouraged him to consider various growth funds with prime
ratings.The favoured route in my advice to customers is to start by
assessing data on 6000 traditional stocks and bond managers and 2000
managers of alternative investments. Based on my advice,we spun the
money around various opportunities and made attractive margins for our
first months of operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at
this point at over 10 million United States Dollars, this margin was
not the full potential of the fund but he desired low risk guaranteed
returns on investments. In mid 2006, he asked that the money be
liquidated because he needed to make an urgent investment requiring
cash payments in Europe. He directed that I liquidate the funds and
had it deposited with a firm. I informed him that the bank would have
to make special arrangements to have this done and in order not to
circumvent due process, the bank would have to make a 9.5 % deduction
from the funds to cater for banking and statutory charges.He
complained about the charges but later came around when I explained to
him the complexities of the task he was asking of us. Cash movement
across borders has become especially strict since the incidents of
9/11. I contacted my affiliate in and had the funds available.

I undertook all the processes and made sure I followed his precise
instructions to the letter and had the funds deposited in a security
consultancy firm, the firm is specialist private firm that accepts
deposits from high net worth individualise and blue chip corporations
that handle valuable products or undertake transactions that need
immediate access to cash.This small and highly private organization is
familiar especially to the highly placed and well-connected
organizations. In line with instructions, the money was deposited.He
told me he wanted the money there in anticipation of his arrival from
Norway later that week. This was the last communication we had,this
transpired around 9th October, 2006. In January last year, we got a
call from the security firm informing us that the inactivity of that
particular portfolio. This was an astounding position as far as I was
concerned, given the fact that I managed the private banking sector I
was the only one who knew about the deposit,and I could not understand
why he had not come forward to claim his deposit. I made futile
efforts to locate him I immediately passed the task of locating him to
the internal investigations department of the bank of china.

Four days later, information started to trickle in, a apparently he
was dead. A person who suited his description was declared dead of a
heart attack in Cannes,South of France. We were soon enough able to
identify the body and cause of death was confirmed.The bank
immediately launched an investigation into possible surviving next of
kin to alert about the situation and also to come forward to claim his
estate. If you are familiar with private banking affairs, those who
patronize our services usually prefer anonymity, but also some levels
of detachment from conventional processes. In his bio-data form, he
listed no next of kin. In the field of private banking, opening an
account with us means no one will know of its existence, accounts are
rarely held under a name; depositors use numbers and codes to make the
accounts anonymous.

This bank also gives the choice to depositors of having their mail
sent to them or held at the bank itself,ensuring that there are no
traces of the account and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of
kin. Private banking clients apart from not nominating next of kin
also usually in most cases leave wills in our care, in this case; he
died intestate. In line with our internal processes for account
holders who have passed away, we instituted our own investigations in
good faith to determine who should have right to claim the estate.This
investigation has for the past months been unfruitful. We have scanned
every continent and used our private investigation affiliate companies
to get to the root of the problem. The investigation didn't ever yield
any result My official capacity dictates that I am the only party to
supervise the investigation and the only party to receive the results
of the investigation. This leaves me as the only person with the full
picture of what the prevailing situation is in relation to the deposit
and the late beneficiary of the deposit.

According to practice, the firm will by the end of this financial year
broadcast a request for statements of claim to BOC, failing to receive
viable claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to BOC.
This will result in the money entering the BOC accounting system and
the portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the Private Banking
Services Department. This will not happen if I have my way. What I
wish to relate to you will smack of unethical practice but I want you
to understand something. It is only an outsider to the banking world
who finds the internal politics of the banking world aberrational. The
world of private banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for
those who occupy certain offices and oversee certain portfolios. You
should have begun by now to put together the general direction of what
I propose. There is US$7.370.000deposited, I alone have the deposit
details and they will release the deposit to no one unless I instruct
them to do so.

I alone know of the existence of this deposit for as far as BOC is
concerned, the transaction with our deceased customer concluded when I
sent the funds to the firm, all outstanding interactions in relation
to the file are just customer services and due process. They are
simply awaiting instructions to release the deposit to any party that
comes forward. This is the situation. This bank has spent great
amounts of money trying to track this man's family; they have
investigated for months and have found no family. The investigation
has come to an end. My proposal; I am prepared to place you in a
position to give instruction for the release of the deposit to you as
the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am
prepared to share the money with you in half. That is:

I will simply nominate you as the next of kin and have them release
the deposit to you. We share the proceeds 50/50.I would have gone
ahead to ask the funds be released to me, but that would have drawn a
straight line to me and my involvement in claiming the deposit. I
assure you that I could have the deposit released to you within a few
days. I will simply inform the bank of the final closing of the file
relating to the customer I will then officially communicate with firm
and instruct them to release the deposit to you. With these two
things: all is done. The alternative would be for us to have firm
direct the funds to another bank with you as account holder. This way
there will be no need for you to think of receiving the money from the
firm. We can fine tune this based on our interactions.

I am aware of the consequences of this proposal. I ask that if you
find non interest in this project that you should discard this mail. I
ask that you do not be vindictive and destructive. If my offer is of
no appeal to you, delete this message and forget I ever contacted
you.Do not destroy my career because you do not approve of my
proposal.You may not know this but people like myself who have made
tidy sums out of comparable situations run the whole private banking
sector. I am not a criminal and what I do, I do not find against good
conscience, this may be hard for you to understand, but the dynamics
of my industry dictates that I make this move. Such opportunities only
come ones' way once in a lifetime. I cannot let this chance pass me
by, for once i find myself in total control of my destiny.

These chances won't pass me by. I ask that you do not destroy my
chance, if you will not work with me let me know and let me move on
with my life but do not destroy me. I am a family man and this is an
opportunity to provide them with new opportunities. There is a reward
for this project and it is a task well worth undertaking. I have
evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is from you refusing
to work with me and alerting my bank. I am the only one who knows of
this situation, good fortune has blessed you with a name that has
planted you into the centre of relevance in my life. Let’s share the
blessing.

If you find yourself able to work with me, contact me through this
same email account. If you give me positive signals, I will initiate
this process towards conclusion. I wish to inform you that should you
contact me via official channels; I will deny knowing you and about
this project. I repeat, I do not want you contacting me through my
official phone lines nor do I want you contacting me through my
official email account. Contact me only through through this email
address. I do not want any direct link between you and me. My official
lines are not secure lines as they are periodically monitored to
assess our level of customer care in line with our Total Quality
Management Policy. Please observe this instruction religiously.Please,
again, note I am a family man; I have a wife and children. I send you
this mail not without a measure of fear as to what the consequences,
but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that
success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold.This is the
one truth I have learned from my private banking clients.Do not betray
my confidence. If we can be of one accord, send me your response to
enable us commence this line of discussion.

I await your response.
Qin Yanjun

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