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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: "Christopher White" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <christopherwhite247@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 00:39:15 +0530
Subject: Dear Sir/Madambbb

Dear Sir/Madam,

I sincerely apologize for intruding into your privacy, especially by contacting you through this means for a business transaction of this magnitude. I contacted you via web SMS because my mobile telephone package does not send or receive messages. For this reasons, I want our communication to be basically through email for now. I want you to partner with me in getting back the money (US$4,800,000.00) left behind in a fixed deposit account in our bank by a citizen of your country, Mr. Rao Prasad Venkateshwara. If this will endanger your position and reputation, I would not have contacted you. This is safe and beneficial. I am presently the operations manager of our bank in Ohio, United States of America and please do not expose this transaction for any reason, I will give you more information of myself, our bank and the transaction itself once you write again.

Late Mr. Rao Prasad Venkateshwara lived and worked in New York City as an international businessman. He deposited in our bank the sum of Four Million, Eight Hundred Thousand US Dollars (US$4,800,000.00) as fixed deposit. This deposit has long matured and has gone dormant for about two years. We have tried to reach him and could not. His telephone number could not be reached, emails sent to him kept bouncing back as undelivered and we never got any response from the letters posted to his residential address. This issue prompted me to carry out an independent investigation about his whereabouts since he did not provide a next of kin or beneficiary at the time he made the deposit with us. I later realized with shook that he died sometime in November 2009 of heart related illness in a Los Angeles hospital. His death was not reported to our bank from that time till this moment and nobody in our bank is aware of this. He was a kind hearted man and give money out freely. I pray his soul rest in peace

However, I have on my own made several enquiries at your embassy and no information of him was found, which I find weird. My effort to locate any of his relatives took me to your country and the regional passport office in New Delhi informed me that the passport number was irrelevant and not issued anywhere in India. Since this is the issue, I want you to apply as the next of kin of the deceased to claim the deposit from our bank since it is assumed he was from India. It does not matter whether you knew him or not, it does not matter if you have any kind of relationship with him or not. I will guide you all the way to make this claim. This is not a matter of being greedy or having ugly morals, it is not the best to leave the money to eventually end up in Government hands while we have the opportunity to live better with it. This is a risk free transaction, as I am the operations manager of our bank and the final approval of your application will be done by my department. Once it is approved, you will have th

With my influence, our bank will tender the necessary documents to appropriate authorities, like your country's central bank (RBI) to enable a smooth transfer of the money into your bank account. Everything will be done legally, have no fear about this. Right now, I have all the copies of the documents relating to the fixed deposit late Mr. Rao Prasad Venkateshwara made that you will file to back up this claim. All I require now is your honest cooperation to enable us make this claim and we have to do this within shortest time possible. If you are willing to do this with me, write back and I shall inform you on what next to do. If nothing is done immediately, the money will be returned to the government treasury as an abandoned fund and we will gain nothing from it. I am waiting for your consent in order to move to the next step towards getting the fund. Thank you and I am waiting.

Best regards,
Christopher White.
Mobile: +12132830692
Email: christopherwhite247@gmail.com .

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