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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: "Niu Zhiming" <Niu@bank-of-china.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: niuzhiming02@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2013 13:25:40 +0200
Subject: Good day


Hello,

I am Niu Zhiming, a staff of Private Banking Services at the Bank of China
(BOC). I am contacting you concerning our customer and an investment
placed under our banks management 8 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 8.370 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
favored 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.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, please reply me immediately to
enable us commence this line of discussion. contact via email
niuzhiming02@gmail.com
I await your response.

Niu Zhiming

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