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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: "Brown Spencer" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <brownspencr@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2017 06:16:21 -0700
Subject: Kindly Treat as Confidential>

Hello and Good day to you.
 
 
First, I must solicit for your confidence and trust in this transaction; this is by virtue of its nature as being utterly confidential. I know that a proposition of this nature could get any one apprehensive, but please give your urgent attention to what I am about to say and if we can be of one accord, we must act swiftly on this for our great mutual benefits
 
By way of introduction my name is Brown Spencer, an Independent Financial Adviser/consultant. I would respectfully request as I share this information with you that you treat the content of this message with utmost confidentiality; you have a choice to make and one that will benefit the both of us or you have the right to decline if you are not interested in the opportunity.
 
 
Please read carefully; in 2015 one of my client who was an entrepreneur and a mining magnate came to me with an investment capital of USD30 million United States Dollars, Based on my guidelines, we spun the money around on various business opportunities which include Forex Trading and Stock Market etc; we made attractive Profits for the first  year, and in April 2016, he instructed that the principal sum be liquidated because he needed to make an urgent investment in a mining business deal with the AngloGold Ashanti mining company  in South of Africa which I linked him with; I had to pull out all the funds in various businesses that we were trading on and had the funds deposited with a securities firm in South Africa towards the intended AngloGold Ashanti deal as per his instructions. The firm is an especially private firm that accepts deposits from high net worth individuals and blue chip corporations. I immediately acted upon his instruction by liquidating his
 
 
For some reasons the deal with AngloGold mining company was delayed but my client advised that we leave the proposed investment funds with the security firm since it has already been moved and because he has a high anticipation that the hold up on the deal would be lifted sooner and we would proceed with the intended business.
 
 
Unfortunately while we were waiting for the deal to go through with the AngloGold company, my client passed on as a result of cardiac arrest in November 2016; this was barely three days after I had spoken with him and he informed me that he is currently re-negotiating the mining deal with the AngloGold Ashanti company and that would be flying down to South Africa for the re-negotiation which never happened.
 
 
The situation is very unfortunate because I am not known to anyone related to my late client and there was no inclusion of his next of kin in the documents during the time we made the deposit with the security firm because we never anticipated the delay in concluding the deal with the AngloGold Company. It was an open door opportunity my client wanted to cash into so everything was done in swift arrangement thinking that the deal would go through immediately. This has left me with no choice as I have tried my utmost best in vain to trace anyone related to him or his next of kin to present so as to repatriate the fund.
 
 
It will interest you to know that most of my dealings with my client was very private and not to the knowledge of anyone. Due to my clients numerous business connections and interests, he usually prefers to be anonymous and rather front others to stand as his fiduciary agent especially in business investment; and since he has no will or next of kin in connection with the funds deposited with the security firm in South Africa, I now came up with an option to proceed and retrieve the funds from the security firm by presenting someone who will be in agreement with me to stand as my late clients TRUSTEE to receive fund on behalf of his family. This arrangement will only be known between the two of us.
 
 
What I am proposing therefore is to have you stand as my late clients Trustee so that we can retrieve the USD30, 000,000.00 from the security firm for our mutual benefit. The security firm will only follow my instruction to release funds to whoever I present to them as TRUSTEE to my late client. I have exclusive access to all paper works and all the documentations in connection to the deposit with the security firm necessary to process the release of funds to you if you accept my proposal. It is my intention that we both benefit from this fortune and split the fund 60/40 as soon as money is remitted to your bank account successfully. I also propose 5% of the proceeds to be donated to any charity organization of our choice in honour of my late client upon successful completion of the transaction.
 
 
I have already notified the Security Company of the death of my client and my intention to present his TRUSTEE as the designated recipient of fund on behalf of his family.
 
 
Nobody is getting hurt; this is a lifetime opportunity for us. I am well placed to get this fund release to you and all I need is a trusted and reliable partner to work with me and achieve this success for ourselves; and come to think of it if we do not retrieve the funds obviously the holders being the security firm will definitely benefit from it.
 
 
Please do not see me as a bad person hence I have the intension to donate 5% of the money to any charity organization in memory of my late client or even to use the money to set up a foundation in his memory. I am also sending you this message not without a measure of fear as to the consequences if you should decide to turn my proposal down or label it as unsolicited, but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. Do not betray my confidence. Please get back to me as soon as possible if you are interested and if you are not then please delete my message with all due respect.
 
 
I will be waiting for your prompt response and please treat urgent.
 
 
Regards,
 
Brown Spencer.

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