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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: Peter Vincent <petervincentt@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 10:25:57 +0000
Subject: GOOD DAY


Dear Sir,

I am Peter Vincent, the account officer to the
late Dr. Ravindra F. Shah who died together with his wife Dr. Mrs.
Manjula Parikh-Shah in a plane crash on the 1st Oct. 2003 on their way
to attending a wedding in Boston. Dr. Ravindra F. Shah was an American, a
physician and an industrialist. He unfortunately died without having
any heir to his assets nor leaving any trace to his relatives. He had
confided to me of his interest to open a company here in Burkina Faso
with the funds deposited here but never came back after the deposit made
in the year 2000 as he died in 2003.

The amount involved is Ten
Million Five Hundred Thousand USD ($10,500,000.00). No other person
knows about this and I am contacting you for us to transfer this funds
to your account as the heir and hence beneficiary to the fund. I have
and will furnish you with all necessary details the bank may need. I
contacted you because the bank will only believe and honour you with the
fund knowing that our late customer was also a foreigner like you but
would definitely not work or believe a local person from here. I want to
assure you that this is risk free and note that I am doing this because
the bank here will only claim the funds if we don’t act now and receive
the funds.

This is a mutual deal that we both stand to benefit
so much from. All I need is your utmost trust, confidence and sincerity.
You also have to guarantee me that I will receive my share after the
transfer.

Do reply urgently so that I give you necessary details as to how to go about it.

Sincerely,

Peter Vincent

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