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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: Amy Fariza <faustins.austins82@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 17:26:32 +0000
Subject: You are Chosen to be the next of kin

Dear Good friend,

My name is Barrister Malik Fariz (Esq.), A solicitor and personal legal
adviser to Late Mr. Paul Louis . I worked as a personal Attorney to late Mr
Paul Louis, an expatriate, who was a consultant with PETROLIAM NASIONAL
BERHAD (PETRONAS) Malaysia. He died on April 21st, 2003. Since then I have
made several inquiries as to locate any of his extended relatives, but all
proved abortive.

After several unsuccessful attempts, hence I decided to contact you. I am
contacting you to assist in retrieving the money valued at (US$15.5M) that
was left behind by my client (Mr. Paul Louis) with the HSBC Bank Malaysia ,
Malaysia before it declared unserviceable account and be confiscated by the
bank. Consequently, the Bank issued a notice to provide any member of late
Mr.Louis family or relatives within 10 days or the account will be closed.

I hereby seek your consent to act as relative to late Paul Louis and claim
the money US$15.5M from the bank. I will provide the necessary information
to be used in convincing the bank that you relate to late Paul Louis.
Whoever I present to the bank will claim the money, since I am his personal
Counsel before he dies; the bank knows me, because I represent him in all
his banking dealings with the bank.

When you claim the money, we share it 50% / 50%. All I require is your
honest cooperation to enable us succeed without any hitch. I guarantee
that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect
us from any breach of the law.

I wait for your urgent reply, send your reply to my private email address :
malikfariz65@gmail.com ,l'm sending this mail with my office email address.


Sincerely,
Barrister. M. Fariz (Esq.)

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