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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: "Paul Stone" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <pspuk@1email.eu>
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 2015 15:33:28 -0700
Subject: ATTN: NEXT OF KIN

Paul Stone & Partners
(Rectam Chambers)
20 Finsbury Street Islington, Greater
London EC2Y 9, United Kingdom
 
Dear Sir,
 
I am the Personal Attorney to late Mr. Andrea Schranner a successful Real Estate magnate, who died along with his entire family in a plane crash in Germany on 31 July, 2000. My late Client may or may not be related to you. I narrowed down my search to you based on your nationality which you both share. The main reason why I ask you to contact me is because I need your urgent assistance in resolving an issue that just cropped up. Since the past 14 years I have waited patiently and searched fruitlessly for any surviving distant relation of my late client all to no avail.
 
Now as the Personal Attorney then to late Mr. Andrea Schranner, the bank where his money is deposited recently wrote me to notify me of plans to forfeit his unclaimed fund to the Treasury, if I fail to come forward with a next of kin within the next 14 work days. I don't want the fund to go into the Treasury as an unclaimed fund and probably end up in the pockets of top officials. I strongly suspect this “TREASURY THING“ to be a ploy because there have been many unusual and unsavory interest in this particular bank account for the past couple of years; this is the reason why I am contacting you base on the fact that you share same nationality with my late client. I want to present you to the bank as the next of kin to my late client whether you are related or not.
 
I directly and personally have all the necessary back up documents and will source all other necessary papers legally to support the successful release of the fund to you without delay provided you agree to work with me and strictly take my professional advice and official directives to actualize the fund to your/our custody. The account is valued at Twenty One Million and Five Hundred Thousand United Kingdom pounds sterling (21.5 GBP). I prefer to give 50% of the proceeds to charity than let the bank officials have it, while we share the balance of 50% for our troubles.
 
If interested please send in your contact telephone number in your return mail so that we can talk further.
 
I await your positive response.
Best regards,
Paul Stone



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