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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. Robert Meko" <robertmeko1@gmail.com>
Reply-To: r_meko@ymail.com
Date: Tue, 4 Mar 2014 03:56:25 +0800 (CST)
Subject: ATT:: GOOD DAY,




--
UBS Bank AG Z?rich
Switzerland
Postal Account:80-2-2

Good Day,

I am a consultant, working with UBS Zurich Switzerland. I will be happy to
execute this deal with you if you have a corporate or personal Bank
Account and if you are capable of handling issues as a TOP SECRET. I
therefore need a strong Assurance that you will never let me down, when I
transfer this money to your account.

Thus during one of our periodic auditing I discovered a dormant account
with holding balance of US$ 32,000.000.00 { Thirty Two million US Dollars
only}, Sometimes a person will open a bank account, deposit money in it,
and then will disappear into the tin air.

Banks are not always able to find out what has become of these silent
customers, or to know whether they should follow up on requests from
people who claim to be heirs to the accounts. The main problem is that the
customer resides abroad and, due to bank secrecy and code of conduct, the
bank cannot publish notices in the international press to locate the
depositaries. This has led the majority of Swiss banks to refrain from
opening small-deposit accounts for foreign customers; for fear that they
will forget that the account exists.

It has happened in the past, however, such customers pass away and their
heirs can neither prove the death, nor their heir ship. This was a
frequent occurrence during the wartime periods, also now that have many
reports of environmental hazards with many unknown casualties and the
banks have now set up a simple, rapid resolution procedure operating to
their customers' advantage.

Dormant assets are defined as any assets deposited with a bank (i.e. an
account, a custody account or a safety-deposit box) for which there has
been no contact with the customer in the bank's files for the last ten
years or more.

I am constrained to issue more details about this business transaction
until your response is received. If you know that you will be capable to
handle large or small amount on trust and can to keep all matters secret
and ready to take 45% of any amount I transfer to your account from the
dormant account and I will take 55%, send your account information's by
return mail. Tell me more about yourself, while I look forward to receive
the above information.

I want to re-assure you that this business is risk free and you can send
an empty account to receive the funds, provided that the account is
capable to receive incoming funds.

Look forward to discuss this opportunity further with you in detail.
Please email me back on this mail address:(robertmeko2@yahoo.com.hk)Or
provide me with your phone number for discussion of this transaction in
further details.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Warmest regards,

Mr.Robert Meko.

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