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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: Ken Mckay <personal838@gmail.com>
Reply-To: <kenmckay1980@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 14:51:57 +0200
Subject: Please indicate interest immediately for us to proceed.

Hello,
I am Mr.Ken Mckay, a British Citizen and works as a general auditor in my bank.
I discovered a dormant account in my office  (this account has been inactive for 14 years now) in my last auditing with my Bank here in London.
It will be in my interest to transfer this fund worth {?15,000,000} Fifteen Million GB Pounds Sterling in an account offshore.
>From my investigations and confirmations, the owner of this account Mr. Andreas Schranner a citizen of Germany who perished in a plane crash (Concorde Air Flight AF4590) with the whole passengers on board on 31 July 2000. And for your confirmation you can view this : website:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm
If you can be a collaborator to this please indicate interest immediately for us to proceed.
Remember this is absolutely confidential. My wife does not know about this. My family will be in shambles if it burst out and I will also be in trouble as well as losing my precious job.
Respond
Regards and respect,
Mr. Ken Mckay

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