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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: Scott John <johnscott1112@yahoo.com.hk>
Reply-To: Scott John <scott.john04@yahoo.co.uk>
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2014 12:33:41 +0800
Subject: Reply Me Back OK??



Hello!


My Name is Mr. John Scott, I work with a
private Bank here in London UK. I want to introduce and negotiate with
you a business opportunity that exist in my office that will be of
great benefit us all. Thus I wish to transfer the sum of £75, Million
Pounds from a dormant Bank account here. Thus I would like to explain
more to you on how this large amount of fund originates.

I am a
consulting auditor attached with a private Bank, I carry out various
banking Services with the bank. I am contacting you independently
concerning the outcome of our internal audit investigation which no
other one has been informed of this communication and I have decided to
intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to
you.

I am contacting you concerning a customer of the bank who
had an investment placed under the banks management 13 years ago. On
May 22/1999. He is an American accountant/consultant on Oil matters of
Saudi Arabia, Late Eng Micheal David Woodson 65 years old then, he made
an investment deposit valued at £52.2 Million Pounds in this bank,
which he wished to have us turn over on his behalf.

I was the
officer assigned to his case; I made numerous suggestions in line with
my duties as the de-facto chief operations officer and a consulting
investment auditor of the Private Banking Services Department,
especially given the volume of funds he wished to put into our bank. We
met on numerous occasions prior to any investments being placed. I
encouraged him to consider various growth funds with prime ratings.

The
favoured route in my advice to customers is to start by assessing data
on 600 traditional stocks and bonds managers and alternative
investments. Based on my advice, we spun the money around various
opportunities and made attractive margins for our first year of
operation, the accrued profit and interest stood at this point at over
£65.5 Million, this margin was not the full potential of the fund but
he desired low risk guaranteed returns on investments.

In August
2001, he asked that the money be liquidated because he needed to make
an urgent investment requiring cash payments in Europe. He directed
that I liquidate the funds and had it deposited with HANDELSBANKEN, a
top Swedish bank. I informed him that our bank would have to make
special arrangements to have this done and in order not to circumvent
due process, the bank would have to make a 9.5% deduction from the
funds to cater for banking and statutory charges. He complained about
the charges but later came around when I explained to him the
complexities of the task he was asking of us.

I contacted my
affiliate in Sweden, however, the exercise was not carried out due to
the complex nature of the task and having been instructed again to stop
further proceeding, in line with his instructions the transfer was
stopped.He told me he would use the money thereafter upon his return
from America later that week. This was the last communication we had,
this transpired around Jun 5, 2003, Four days later, information
started to trickle in, that he died in a plane crash.

On hearing
about this information, the bank immediately launched an investigation
into possible surviving next of kin to alert about the situation and
also to come forward to claim his deposit. In his bio-data form, he
listed no next of kin. In the field of private banking, opening an
account means no one will know of its existence, accounts are rarely
held under a name; depositors use numbers and codes to make the
accounts anonymous.

As things stands now, there is £75, Million
Pounds as value for his investment. The bank has no single idea of
what's the history or nature of the deposit. They are simply awaiting
instructions to release the deposit to any party that comes forward.
This is the situation. This bank has spent great amounts of money
trying to track this man's family; they have investigated for 10 Months
now and have found no known relative. The investigation has already
come to an end.

I am prepared to place you in a position and
instruct the bank to release the deposit to you as the closest
surviving relation. Upon receipt of the deposit, I am prepared to
share the money with you and no more. That is, we share the proceeds
70% for me and 30% for you. We can fine-tune this based on our
interactions and with my position/affiliate in the bank, we can get
things done in a smooth way. There is a reward for this project and it
is a task well worth undertaking. I will like to invest 50% of my shear
in your Country with your help/idea.

I have evaluated the risks
and the only risk I have here is from you refusing to work with me and
alerting the bank. I send you this mail not without a measure of fear
as to what the consequences might be, but I know within me that
nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches never
come easy or on a platter of gold. This is the one truth I have learned
from my private banking clients. Do not betray my confidence.

So
you should urgently get back to me to discuss this further, if you know
you will be capable of handling this risk free transaction. Send me
your personal telephone numbers for easy communications.

Please email me back on this mail address: ( scott.john01@yahoo.co.uk )

I wait to hear from you ASAP.

Regards,

Mr. John Scott.

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