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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: George Harold <georgeharold479@outlook.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2018 02:21:29 +0000
Subject: Can you be trusted to be the next of kin?


Dear Sir,

My name is George Harold, a banker here in London, United Kingdom; I actually got your contact information while searching for a last name similar to a late customer's name, a business man who was in United Kingdom four years ago to make arrangements to move over to United Kingdom with his family because of the trouble in Yemen. However, he lost his life in Yemen to the War in Yemen in 2015 when he went back for his wife and two children. He was unfortunately killed with members of his family a little over three years ago.

When he came to UK in 2014, he made a 12 month Fixed Term Deposit (FTD) in our bank worth £3.5 Million to give him room for adequate settling down when he and his family will arrive United Kingdom.

As the CRM to the late client, the bank has mandated me to present the next beneficiary to the fund (heir/inheritor) to make the claims or the fund will be confiscated and taken to the treasury as unclaimed.

However, the circumstances and urgency of this claim have prompted me to send you this unsolicited email, which I humbly apologize. Can I present you as the beneficiary to the fund of my late client? Since you are bearing the same surname with him?

Therefore on this brief notice, kindly get back to me for more details. Hence, this is purely a confidential matter.

Caveat: Reply only through my email <georgeharold479@gmail.com> only

The split arrangement is 50:50 and it must be handled by proxy. Details when you reply.

Regards,
Mr. George Harold.









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