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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: "Eng John Hendrick" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <engjohnhendrick@yahoo.co.za>
Date: Fri, 2 Aug 2013 21:55:18 -0700
Subject: Write Back Please.

DATABASE ADMINISTRATOR.
P O Box 3511
Johannesburg
2000
South Africa.

Good Day,
How are you and your family?. I am John Hendrick and 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 10 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 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 duely informed but
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.

zachgroup.axwebsite.com/kutco.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 know about this
because immediately I got the full information about his death, I encrypted
his account and hid it one of the folder 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.



Have a wonderful day.

With much respect and regard,

Eng. John Hendrick
(O.C.A , O.C.P ,D.B.A)

Anti-fraud resources: