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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: "Mr. Michael Webster." <contact@michelwebster.co.uk>
Reply-To: contact@michwebster.co.uk
Date: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 22:45:17 +0000
Subject: Re: From Michael Webster.

Hello friend,
 
How are you today and your family? I hope fine, I am Mr. Michael Webster, the assistant manager of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) here in London, England. I am contacting you as regards to a business proposal that will be of an immense benefit to both of us and the less privileged ones. Being the assistant manager Greater London Regional office, I discovered a sum of 18,500,000.00 GBP (Sixteen Million Five hundred British Pounds Sterling) in an account belonging to one of our foreign customers Late Mr. Moises Saba Masri. He was a Jewish business mogul from Mexico that died on a helicopter crash. Mr. Saba was 47-years-old when both his wife, his only son Avraham (Albert) and his daughter-in-law died in a helicopter crash.
 
The choice of contacting you aroused from the geographical nature of where you live particularly due to the sensitivity of the transaction and the confidentiality herein. Now our bank has been waiting for any of the relatives to come-up for the claim of the inheritance fund but unfortunately all efforts have been void. I personally have been unsuccessful in locating neither the relatives nor any next of kin to Mr. Saba. On this regards, I seek your consent to present you as the next of kin / will beneficiary to the deceased so that the proceeds of this account valued at 18.5 Million British Pounds can be paid to you.
 
This will be disbursed or shared in these percentages 60% to me and 40% to you. I have secured all necessary legal documents that can be used to back up this claim we are about to make. All I need is to upload your name to the documents and legalize them at the British High Court in order to prove you the legitimate beneficiary. All I require now is your honest co-operation; confidentiality and trust to enable us see this transaction through. I guarantee you 100 % success and that this business transaction will be executed under the ambit of law and will also protect you from any breach of the contract.
 
Please provide me the following as we have 5 working days to run it through:
 
1. Your full name:
2. Telephone number:
3. Contact address:
4. Age:
5. Gender:
6. Occupation:
 
Having gone through a methodical search, I decided to contact you hoping that you will find this proposal interesting. Please on your confirmation of this message and indicating your interest I will furnish you with more information.
 
Your assent to this e-mail and business proposal will be highly appreciated.
 
Regards,
Mr. Michael Webster. gorillacontact

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