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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: "Matheu Miel"<Bt.yahoobT@GMail.coM>
Reply-To: <miel2002m@yahoo.cz>
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 05:30:04 -0800
Subject: Re: From Mr. Matheu please Reply

From: Mr. Miel Matheu,
Banque Capitale Du Benin,
Porto-Novo - 017 BP 3389,74i
Benin Republic.

Hello,

I sincerely write to solicit your co-operation and trust in an urgent business opportunity. I work with Banque Capitale Du Benin in Porto-Novo, Benin republic. Presently, I am in charge of bills and exchange in the international remittance department. I was the account's officer of a certain Mr. and Mrs. Antoine Broodryk's, who worked with Chevron Oil company, but both died in the December 25, 2003 air crash here in Benin Republic.

Mr. Broodryk had a total sum of nine hundred and twenty five thousand (925,000) US Dollars in his domiciliary account. Since the management got the news of his tragic death, they have been expecting his next of kin to come up and claim his/her inheritance funds. Unfortunately, from the day of his death till the time of this letter, nobody has shown up. As his personal account's officer, I decided to search through his classified record files and I discovered that the only next of kin he specified was his wife, who died along with him in the Christmas Day crash.

The banking and financial law of inheritance of Banque Capitale Du Benin, stipulates that if such funds remain unclaimed after a period of 126 Months, it will be lost to the bank as "unclaimed deposit". On that note, I would like to do business with you so that the money can be released to you as a next of kin of the deceased for subsequent disbursement between us. I will soon proceed on retirement, and I personally do not want the funds to be lost to the bank.

The need for a foreigner as a next of kin in this project is necessitated by the fact that the deceased was a foreigner and a Beninese will not perfectly fit as his next of kin or heir. That is why I am contacting you. I found your email address through random internet searches. Please, note that it does not really matter whether you are truly related to the deceased or not, because there is never going to be any background check or investigation whatsoever. Consider that, a top secret from an insider. Also, note that you are not to appear in person and as such, there is absolutely no risk involved.

As soon as I receive your reply indicating your interest and full assurance that you will peacefully let me have my own share of the money after it must have been wired to your bank account, I will email you back with a copy of the next of kin application form and the deceased's bank account information. You would need to correctly fill out the application form and email it to the international remittance director of the bank for onward processing, approval and transfer of the funds to your bank account.

Just so you know, you are free to open a new bank account specially for the purpose of this transaction if you want to. I am willing to let you keep 35% of the total for your assistance. As soon as the funds are wired to your bank account, I may visit you in your country to collect my share, or simply provide you with a bank account to wire it to me. I am waiting to hear back from you soon. Thank you very much.

Respectfully,
Miel Matheu.

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