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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: "Thomas Alfred" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <thomaspaulalfred@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 13 Feb 2018 12:54:56 +0100
Subject: DEAR Sir/Madam,

Date: February 7, 2018

DEAR Sir/Madam,

I am aware that this letter has come to you as a surprise as we have not met before or handled any business deals in the past. Nevertheless, I have contacted you with genuine intentions and I hope I can trust you with this Inheritance opportunity which will be explained below.
My name is Thomas Alfred, an account manager with Laurentian Bank of Canada (LBC).
I retrieved your contact address in my search for the next of kin to a deceased customer of our bank,
Who lived and died in London, Ontario Canada from Cardiac Arrest in the year 2008. Unfortunately this customer died intestate leaving his bank account with an open beneficiary status. All efforts made by our bank to locate his relatives have been unsuccessful so I decided to write you as I have monitored this account in the bank for about 10 years now and no one has come forth with any claim. I would like to present you to our bank as his next of kin to claim this dormant account worth $7.8 Million USD (Seven Million Eight Hundred Thousand US Dollars).

You will apply to the bank as an extended relative to the deceased customer while I work from the inside to make sure all needed information and evidence are provided to you to back up your claim. The account has an open beneficiary status, which is why I have contacted you to come forth and claim the funds as the next of kin and beneficiary. It’s easy for you to become his official next of kin. If we do not make a claim to the funds now, the funds would be reverted back to the system as an unclaimed estate at the expiration of a 10 year dormancy period as approved.

I assure you that this transaction would be handled under due inheritance procedures and every necessary arrangement will be put in place to make you the real beneficiary of the Inheritance. It also requires all confidentiality at this stage and I believe that you are ready to keep this absolutely discreet until you are able to claim the funds from the bank. Once the funds are released to you, it will be shared between the two of us.
Please send your response to my personal email: thomaspaulalfred@gmail.com indicating your readiness to proceed with this transaction and we will discuss more details as well as the procedure to achieve a successful completion. This is an opportunity of a lifetime and people achieve it every day.
I await your response
Sincerely,

Thomas Alfred

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