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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: "R. BEDFORD" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bedfordrolland@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 21 Aug 2016 04:14:15 +0100
Subject: Re: INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY?!

Dear Sir.
 
Hope all is well with you. I saw your profile while searching for a good businessperson and I felt I should relate this very good opportunity to you. I am a Manager at Safestore self-storage facility in London United Kingdom and I have a mutually beneficial business proposal for you. One of our formal clients named Saif Al-Isman Gaddafi, whom I know you must have heard off from the recent invents that happened in Libya.  He was a personal friend, as we were both class mate at the London School of Economics where we studied. He deposited some boxes with my company under anonymous. During the uprising in Libya he came to collect a large part of the boxes, and left 4 of them.
Recently I checked the boxes as it was over the period a deposit can be left in the storage without payment and found out they contained US Dollar (10 million in each box). Sir as you well know my client father is dead, Saif AL-Islam himself sentenced to death by Libya Government.
 
No one is coming to collect the boxes or close the deposit. Sir the problem now is that I did this as a favour for a friend under anonymous from the company which means I have to close the deposit myself or face the consequences. The other issue is I cannot bank or invest the money as I would be questioned where the money is from, hence I need you.
 
The release of the funds from the storage would be done successfully as I made the deposit myself. Sir if you agree to help, I am leaving the sharing pattern open for negotiations between us. Sir I would also want us to use part of the funds to establish a charitable Foundation to help the children, widows, orphans in war places. I hope you would also appreciate why discretion of this matter would be very important to me, because as the Manager in the company I was not supposed to allow the deposit. There is no risk involve in the deal as the boxes were not deposited with our client real name and cannot be linked to him or his family. This is a matter of trust and hopefully I can rely on you. Please reply me even if you are not interested so that I can continue my search because I am under pressure of time to clear the deposit otherwise the state will claim the funds unnecessarily, but in a situation whereby you have the capability to assist please reply as soon as possible s o we can discuss in details and<
Thanks and God bless.
 
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12621140
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1360850/Gaddafis-3bn-British-transfer-European-leaders-wont-tolerate-brutality.html
 
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-02-26/news/30099907_1_london-firm-freeze-assets
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1362927/Ship-carrying-100m-Gaddafi-regime-intercepted-British-waters.html
 
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/07/gaddafi-son-saif-al-islam-libya-sentenced-death-150728084429303.html
 
 
Best Regards,                                                                                                          
 
                                            
ROLAND BEDFORD

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