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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. Matthew" <webmaster@icesa.ec>
Reply-To: <dmk222dmk@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2017 12:45:28 +0200
Subject: [Spam] Fund payment (Undeclared funds)

Dear friend,

I am Mr. Walker and currently an accounts analyst for the Citibank in St Paul's Churchyard London.
This branch of the bank is due for closure shortly (End-October in fact) this has left me with a problem and I need help to resolve it.

One of my duties is to compile and send in the financial reports to the head office at the end of each fiscal year, stating the branches assets, current accounts status and turn over for the preceding year.
During the course of Septembers end of the year and actually the final report from this branch, I discovered an error in a stocks fund account that had been overlooked and carried over for several years. Obviously the former accounts manager had not discovered this and the head office are not aware of it and probably never will be. The unaccounted for amount is just over GBP5,750,000 (five Million, seven hundred and fifty thousand British Pounds sterling)
Most of these accounts have hundreds of millions of pounds in them, and this is traded and moved between endless banks, accounts, stocks and shares etc and in reality are just big numbers on a screen.

I decided to place this fund in bogus Suspended account I created that currently has no named beneficiary and is not linked to any current trading account, individual or company. This means that this account remains pretty much invisible until claimed and would remain as such but for the upcoming branch closure when all the accounts will be transferred and any suspended accounts will more than likely be investigated and traced.
Now this leaves me with a problem and this is where you come in. As an employee of the bank I cannot be linked to this money, or remove it to any account which would be directly connected to me as this would be classed as insider trading which is and you are probably aware is highly illegal and quite easily traced. So I need a third party to claim the funds and then we can share accordingly 50% for you and 50% for me. There is practically no risk involved, as the money has already been "dissolved" as far as the bank is concerned it's legitimate and legal, all I need from you is a claim as the original depositor so that we can approve you as the beneficiary and release the funds.

If you are interested, I will give you more details and process the legal documents in your favor to back up the claim.
All I need at this point is confirmation of your full name, address, age, occupation and a direct telephone number where you can be reached.
As soon as I receive your details, I will proceed with a backdated deposit slip in your name and upload your data as old customer of the bank while we process the documents and secure payment approval.
I only hope we can assist each other. But If you don't want this business offer kindly forget it and I will not contact you again.

I await your response via my secured email address: dmk222dmk@yahoo.co.jp

Best Regards,
Mr. Matthew Walker
(Accounts Analyst)
Citibank Plc
St Paul's Churchyard
London EC4M 8AB.

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