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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: "Qin Yanjun" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <qyanjun15@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 03:31:16 -0800
Subject: Re

Good day,

Pardon me for not having the pleasure of knowing your mindset before
making you this offer and it is utterly confidential and genuine by
virtue of its nature. I cannot imagine the surprise this will bring to
you, but please be rest assured is with good faith and intentions from
a friend in dare need of your assistance. I am a, staff of Private
Banking Service at the Bank of China (BOC). I am contacting you
concerning our customer and, an investment placed under our banks
management 5 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 favoured route in my advice to customers is to start by assessing
data on 6000traditional 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. In mid 2006, he asked that the money be liquidated
because he needed to make an urgent investment requiring cash payments
in Europe. He directed that I liquidate the funds and had it deposited
with a firm. I informed him that the bank would have to make special
arrangements to have this done and in order not to circumvent due
process, the bank would have to make a 9.5 % deduction from the funds
to cater for banking and statutory charges. He complained about the
charges but later came around when I explained to him the complexities
of the task he was asking of us. Cash movement across borders has
become especially strict since the incidents of 9/11. I contacted my
affiliate in and had the funds available. I undertook all the
processes and made sure I followed his precise instructions to the
letter and had the funds deposited in a security consultancy firm, the
firm is specialist private firm that accepts deposits from high net
worth in dividuals and blue chip corporations that handle valuable
products or undertake transactions that need immediate access to cash.
This small and highly private organization is familiar especially to
the highly placed and well-connected organizations. In line with
instructions, the money was deposited.

He told me he wanted the money there in anticipation of his arrival
from Norway later that week. This was the last communication we had,
this transpired around 9thOctober, 2006. In January last year, we got
a call from the security firm informing us that the inactivity of that
particular portfolio. This was an astounding position as far as I was
concerned, given the fact that I managed the private banking sector I
was the only one who knew about the deposit, and I could not
understand why he had not come forward to claim his deposit. I made
futile efforts to locate him I immediately passed the task of locating
him to the internal investigations department of the bank of china.
Four days later, information started to trickle in, apparently he was
dead. A person who suited his description was declared dead of a heart
attack in Canne, South of France. We were soon enough able to identify
the body and cause of death was confirmed. The bank immediately
launched an investigation into possible surviving next of kin to alert
about the situation and also to come forward to claim his estate. If
you are familiar with private banking affairs, those who patronize our
services usually prefer anonymity, but also some levels of detachment
from conventional processes. In his bio-data form, he listed no next
of kin. In the field of private banking, opening an account with us
means no one will know of its existence, accounts are rarely held
under a name; depositors use numbers and codes to make the accounts
anonymous.

This bank also gives the choice to depositors of having their mail
sent to them or held at the bank itself, ensuring that there are no
traces of the account and as I said, rarely do they nominate next of
kin. Private banking clients apart from not nominating next of kin
also usually in most cases leave wills in our care, in this case; he
died intestate. In line with our internal processes for account
holders who have passed away, we instituted our own investigations in
good faith to determine who should have right to claim the estate.
This investigation has for the past months been unfruitful. We have
scanned every continent and used our private investigation affiliate
companies to get to the root of the problem. The investigation didn’t
ever yield any result My official capacity dictates that I am the only
party to supervise the investigation and the only party to receive the
results of the investigation. This leaves me as the only person with
the full picture of what the prevailing situation is in relation to
the deposit and the late beneficiary of the deposit. According to
practice, the firm will by the end of this financial year broadcast a
request for statements of claim to BOC, failing to receive viable
claims they will most probably revert the deposit back to BOC. This
will result in the money entering the BOC accounting system and the
portfolio will be out of my hands and out of the Private Banking
Services Department. This will not happen if I have my way. What I
wish to relate to you will smack of unethical practice but I want you
to understand something. It is only an outsider to the banking world
who finds the internal politics of the banking world aberrational. The
world of private banking especially is fraught with huge rewards for
those who occupy certain offices and oversee certain portfolios. You
should have begun by now to put together the general direction of what
I propose. There is US$8.370.000deposited, I alone have the deposit
details and they will release the deposit to no one unless I instruct
them to do so.

I alone know of the existence of this deposit for as far as BOC is
concerned, the transaction with our deceased customer concluded when I
sent the funds to the firm, all outstanding interactions in relation
to the file are just customer services and due process. They are
simply awaiting instructions to release the deposit to any party that
comes forward. This is the situation. This bank has spent great
amounts of money trying to track this man's family; they have
investigated for months and have found no family. The investigation
has come to an end. My proposal; I am prepared to place you in a
position to give instruction for the release of the deposit to you as
the closest surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am
prepared to share the money with you in half. That is: I will simply
nominate you as the next of kin and have them release the deposit to
you. We share the proceeds 50/50.I would have gone ahead to ask the
funds be released to me, but that would have drawn a straight line
tome and my involvement in claiming the deposit. I assure you that I
could have the deposit released to you within a few days. I will
simply inform the bank of the final closing of the file relating to
the customer I will then officially communicate with firm and instruct
them to release the deposit to you. With these two things: all is
done. The alternative would be for us to have firm direct the funds to
another bank with you as account holder. This way there will be no
need for you to think of receiving the money from the firm.We
canfine-tune this based on our interactions.

I am aware of the consequences of this proposal. I ask that if you
find noninterest in this project that you should discard this mail. I
ask that you do not be vindictive and destructive. If my offer is of
no appeal to you, delete this message and forget I ever contacted you.
Do not destroy my career because you do not approve of my proposal.
You may not know this but people like myself who have made tidy sums
out of comparable situations run the whole private banking sector. I
am not a criminal and what I do, I do not find against good
conscience, this may be hard for you to understand, but the dynamics
of my industry dictates that I make this move. Such opportunities only
come ones' way once in a lifetime. I cannot let this chance pass me
by, for once i find myself in total control of my destiny. These
chances won't pass me by. I ask that you do not destroy my chance, if
you will not work with me let me know and let me move on with my life
but do not destroy me. I am a family man and this is an opportunity to
provide them with new opportunities. There is a reward for this
project and it is a task well worth undertaking. I have evaluated the
risks and the only risk I have here is from you refusing to work with
me and alerting my bank. I am the only one who knows of this
situation, good fortune has blessed you with a name that has planted
you into the centre of relevance in my life. Let’s share the blessing.

If you find yourself able to work with me, contact me through this
same email account. If you give me positive signals, I will initiate
this process towards conclusion. I wish to inform you that should you
contact me via official channels; I will deny knowing you and about
this project. I repeat, I do not want you contacting me through my
official phone lines nor do I want you contacting me through my
official email account. Contact me only through through this email
address. I do not want any direct link between you and me. My official
lines are not secure lines as they are periodically monitored to
assess our level of customer care in line with our Total Quality
Management Policy. Please observe this instruction religiously.
Please, again, note I am a family man; I have a wife and children. 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, send me your
response to enable us commence this line of discussion.
I await your response.
Qin Yanjun

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