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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: Dr Chris Courtney <05@Jalonkatu.onmicrosoft.com>
Reply-To: <chriscnyel44@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 09:44:48 -0700
Subject: The matter that requires your urgent attention

Dear,

I am Chris Courtney,originally from Montana, United States of America and I have lived in Indiana for years with my wife and kids. I love my family very well and would not want to disappoint them for any reason. Take this transaction very serious and be careful to avoid mistakes.

A citizen of your country, Late Mr. Sarin Gupta who lived and worked in the States as an international businessman deposited in our bank the sum of Five million, Seven hundred and Thirty thousand US Dollars (US$5,730,000.00) and for this reason I am contacting you to help to get back the money left behind by him.
This is safe, beneficial and will not endanger your position or reputation, else I would not have contacted you as I am presently the Director of Business Services of the bank here in Indiana Midwestern United States of America.


His account has been dormant for about four years now and all effort to reach him failed. His telephone number cannot be reached, emails sent to him kept bouncing back as undelivered and we never got any response from the letters posted to his residential address. This issue prompted me to carry out an independent investigation about his whereabouts since he did not provide a beneficiary at the time he opened the account with us only to find out to my greatest surprise, that he died in New York in 2009 while on vacation there.



His death has not been reported to our bank from that time till this moment and nobody in our bank is aware of this except me. I have made several enquiries at your embassy and passport offices and I could not get any information on him to enable me reach any of his relatives and for this reason I want you to apply as his Cousin in order to claim the money from our bank. It does not matter if you were his Cousin or not.


I am the Director of Business Services of our bank and will sign the final approval of your application. Once approved, the money will be transferred to any account you will provide. Upon the receipt of the money, I will come over to your country to meet with you in order to share the money. The money shall be shared into two parts respectively (60:40) for me and you after deducting all costs incurred in the process of getting it.



I have all the copies of the necessary documents required to back up this claim and all I want now is your honest cooperation to enable us make this claim within the shortest time possible. Write back to me via chriscnyel44@hotmail.com to confirm your willingness to do this with me and I shall inform you on what next to do to make sure you receive the money. If nothing is done immediately, the money will be returned to the national treasury by our bank and me and you will gain nothing from it. If on the other hand you are not willing to do this, please inform me so I can immediately look for someone else. Thank you for your kind understanding.



Yours sincerely,
Mr. Chris Courtney.
+1 765 228 2509

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