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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: "Mr Richard Lewis" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <richardlewisjr12@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 15 Dec 2016 03:57:43 -0800
Subject: I need your reply

From Mr Richard Lewis
Auditing and Account
Bank Manager
London, UK
 
Attention:
 
I am a staff in one of the bank in UK. I am writing following an opportunity in my office that will be of benefit to both of us. In my department we discovered an abandoned treasure that contain the sum of GBP5.5 million,(Five million five hundred Great Britain Pounds)in safe keeping room that belongs to one of our foreign customer a Korean national who unfortunately lost his life in the Tsunami disaster in Thailand 2004,including his wife and Two of his daughters. Since we got information about his death, we have been expecting his partner or relatives to come over and claim his money because we cannot release it unless somebody applies for it as partner or relation to the deceased as indicated in our banking laws and guild lines.
 
Unfortunately I learned that his supposed next of kin died along with him in the knowledge of this treasure behind for the claim.It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make the deal with you because you share the same last name with our late customer and make sure we bring it out as the partner or beneficiary of the deposited treasure for safety keeping and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and we don't want this money to go back into Bank as unclaimed.
 
The banking law and guidelines here stipulates that such treasure remained after 13 years the money will be transferred into banking treasury as unclaimed property.We will share the percentage equal, in any expenses we did will be deduct from the money before sharing. Your share will be 50% and my own will be the same after we have remove the money for our expenses.
 
Please note that all necessary arrangement for the smooth release of these deposited treasure to you has been finalized.I will discuss more in details when I do receive your response.You can reach me in my private email: richardlewisjr12@gmail.com
 
Best regards,
Mr Richard Lewis.

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