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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 Mcraveen <paulmcr53@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2017 16:08:52 -0700
Subject: Mutual Business proposition

Good day to you, I guess this might sound strange to you receiving an
email from on unknown person. My name is Mr. Paul Mcraven . I am a
banker and citizen of Ghana. I write to contact you for a very
important and confidential business transaction which I believe will
benefit both of us after completion. I am contacting you after a
careful thought that you might be capable of handling this top
business transaction which i am revealing to you now.

Here is the Business proposal

In 2011, A customer, an international businessman made a fixed deposit
with our bank for 36 months, valued at US$12.5 Million with my bank. I
was his account officer. The maturity date for this deposit contract
was 16th of September 2014. Since the last quarter of 2014 until
today, no one has come or inquired about the deposit. As the account
officer, i have tried severally to reach the contact address he left
to ascertain if he will roll over the deposit or have the contract sum
withdrawn but the news i got was sad and devastating. The said
customer was among the death victims in the 17 July 2014 Malaysia
Airlines Flight MH17 crash in Ukraine. The deposit document which the
bank has, has no beneficiary or next of kin in it which prompted my
contacting you.

Therefore, I am seeking your co-operation to present you as his
business partner and the beneficiary of the fund since no one was
named as the next of kin or the beneficiary. With this arrangement,
the bank will pay the money to you. All you need to do is to indicate
your interest and we will take it from there. Arrangement is in place
to immediately slot in your details once received to the bank
information network data to reflect you as the next of kin. If you are
interested and willing to handle this deal, I intend that you retain
45% of the funds while 50% shall be for me. At completion, i will take
my leave to join you in your country for my share. The remaining 5%
will be for any expenses that might come up at the course of the
transfer. More details will be revealed to you in our next
correspondence.

Please keep this proposal as a top secret or delete it if you are not
interested at all. I look forward to hearing from you.

If you are interested, please let me know immediately.

Best Regards,
Paul Mcraven

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