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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: "ERIC OLSON" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <fedupdates8251@collector.org>
Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2018 05:04:53 -0400
Subject: Payment 18 U.S.C. § 1956 cleared

Re: Transaction  18 U.S.C. § 1956
 
 
This is to inform you that your $7,328,000 which was lodged in our Treasury Bonds in Alabama by the U.S Customs and Border Protection CBP under the governance of Timothy F. Geithner who was the Secretary of the Treasury from Jan. 26,2009 to Jan 25, 2013. Steven Mnuchin the incumbent Secretary of the Treasury Assumed office in February 13, 2017, placed some confiscated funds on review few days after he resumed office. This review is to find out why over $214 billion dollars were seized from year 2008 to 2017, we discovered that some of our citizens failed to follow the government policy which made them to loose their winning lottery or inheritance funds coming in from oversea. Some funds were cleared because it has no link to drug trafficking.
Some of the released fund were mostly transported from Asia , African and Arab in cash which is against the U.S Money Laundering Control Act. If you are living in the US and received foreign gifts of money or other property, you’ll need to report it on Form 3520 — Annual Return to Report Transactions with Foreign Trusts and Receipt of Certain Foreign funds. any  fund or asset valued at more than $100,000 from foreign corporations or foreign partnerships (including from people related to these corporations or partnerships) requires this Form 3520.
 
 
Form 3520 is considered an “information return,” rather than a tax return, because foreign gifts generally are not subject to income tax. However, you are subject to stiff penalties for failing to submit Form 3520 when it is required.This was why your fund was seized but you are among the few lucky people to receive this email because your fund has been released to  Sun Trust Bank for remittance.
Kindly Contact the bank and request for the remittance of your fund.
 
Bank Name: SunTrust Bank
Contact Person: Jorge Arrieta
General Auditor
E-mail: Suntrustbank@groupmail.com
Phone Number (334) 370-1413
 
 
provide the following information below to the bank for processing and remittance of your payment.
 
 
Full name:................
Age : ...............
Occupation: ...........................
address:......................................
Mobile number:...............................
Home Phone#: ...................................
 
 
 
Congratulations on this one ........ God bless you and God bless America.
 
 
Regards,
MR. ERIC OLSON
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER,
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY

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