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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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: patrickmcsweeney1954@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2013 04:36:49 -0400
Subject: Business Proposal




Dear Friend

My name is Patrick McSweeney,a chartered Management Accountant and an
External Auditor.I am currently working with a team of external auditors
that is under retainer ship engagement by the HSBC Bank(UK) to audit its
activities in the entire British Isles since last year.

In the course of a routine audit of the HSBC Bank,I discovered some
investment accounts that have been dormant for some years.Most of the
investment accounts belongs to single beneficiaries,unlike the corporate
ones belonging to very few establishments. The balance in all these
accounts currently stands at about 150 million British Pounds.However
there is a particular one among the accounts that stands out for me.The
current balance is 15.5 million GBP, no activity has been carried out on
this particular account since year 2000. Statutorily,an investment account
is regarded as dormant if such an account is not operated for a 5-year
period.In other word this particular account has been dormant for 12
years.It goes without saying that this unusual extended period of dormancy
on an account with a such a huge sum aroused my curiosity as a
professional auditor.And in line with the regulations of the Financial
Service Authority(FSA) in the United Kingdom, it is my duty to report such
a discovery to the management.

But after a discreet investigation on the name of of the account owner,I
have just found out that he died in year 2000,which is the year the
account was last operated.He may have died obviously died intestate which
is responsible for why nobody has come forward for claims all these years.
What may also interest you,coincidentally,is that the late investor is
from your country.I have been weighing a lot of options on how best to
make these funds my own without the knowledge of the authorities.You will
appreciate this more when you realise that I have been keeping every bit
of my discovery secret for such a long time while pondering on how to
contact a prospective partner like you.Rather than informing the HSBC
management,I decided to go for an option that will be of immense benefit
to both of us,with an explicit understanding for both of us to share the
amount on a mutually agreed-upon percentage.This is obviously a great
opportunity and I have chosen to get you involved because of the following
reason:

On the ground that you bear the same last name with the deceased and
therefore urging you to come forward for the claim if you are related.But
if you are not in any way related to the deceased,with the same last names
for both of you,all the needed approvals can be facilitated in your name
because I am of the conviction of the fact that we can capitalise on my
insider leverage to secure the funds and release them in your name as the
next-of-kin to the deceased investor.

I will provide you with all relevant approval documents(both legal and
institutional) that will facilitate our achieving this goal.And it will be
part of my responsibility to guide you on how to make the needed
application for claim to the bank.And I can assure you that we are
completely in charge of the transaction,and going by the way we are going
to handle this,you are not going to be exposed to any risk.The transaction
will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from
any breach of the law.You will be protected all the way,during and after
the conclusion of transaction. However it is important to let you known
all I require is your honest cooperation to enable us see this transaction
through.I believe I will be able to work with you only if you are willing
to guarantee me your sincerity and honesty which is regarded as a basic
foundation for mutual trust.You have to be very reliable,trustworthy and
absolutely discreet.

However I know you will be surprise to read an email of proposal like this
from an unknown fellow to you.Apart from being surprise you may be
skeptical to reply back to me as one needs to be very careful due to the
invasion of the internet world in recent times by dishonest people. But I
can assure that this is a different case.I got your contact from a
professional colleague who had worked with your country's chamber of
commerce.He intimated of your pedigree. In conclusion,I must use this
opportunity to implore you to exercise the utmost indulgence to keep this
proposal extraordinarily confidential no matter whatever may be your
decision. If you are interested please contact me at once to indicate your
interest to enable me give you more details regarding the procedures and
strategies to be adopted and also the full account names of the deceased
which is being kept to my chest until I am sure you will be interested.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to receiving your response mail
soon.Contact me via my private email below, but If this business
proposition offends your moral values, please do accept my apology.

Regards
Patrick McSweeney
London -United Kingdom
Email : patrickmcsweeney1954@gmail.com






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