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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: "Liam Coleman" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <liam.coleman@zoho.com>
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2019 12:42:16 -0800
Subject: THIS IS FOR OUR MUTUAL BENEFIT AND INTEREST

The Co-operative Bank P.L.C.
80 Cornhill, The City
London, EC3V 3QQ
England
 
29 January, 2019
 
My Dear,
 
 
Apologies to write you out of the blue like this but something very important came to our notice and we believe its important we seek your consent for our mutual interest.
 
 
Im Liam Coleman, Director, Retail & Commercial Bank, The Co-operative Bank P.L.C, former personal funds manager to our deceased customer of our Bank that shares the same last name with you.  He died recently along with his wife and only son, while holidaying in Burma and flown back to England for burial. In our last audit, we discovered a dormant account with GB£ 28,844,000.00 (Twenty-eight million, eight hundred and forty-four thousand British Pounds Sterling only) in his name.
 
 
During our investigations we discovered he nominated his son as his next of kin. All efforts to trace his relations proved impossible. His country Embassy here in UK couldnt trace any of the deceaseds relations. The account has been dormant since his death, hence we decided to contact you, to seek your consent to enable us nominate you as next of kin to the deceased and transfer the funds to your favour. With the consent of our late clients solicitors, we shall confirm you as the next of kin, sole beneficiary to the deposit/funds and authorize funds transfer to you. After transfer of funds to your favour, you shall retain 65%, and 35% ours (Me and our client solicitors).
 
 
We have all relevant details about the deceased whilst considering the fact that you are a distant relative of the deceased and having the same surname, shall assist us to positively claim the funds successfully without any retribution whatsoever.
 
 
Your positive response shall be highly appreciated to enable us favour you with a draft application / account details of the deceased for submission to The Co-operative Bank P.L.C.
 
 
Should this business transaction, be of interest to you, and you would like to request a copy of draft application to proceed, kindly get back to me urgently. Please also contact me if you object to our proposal to enable us search for someone else.
 
 
Yours truly,
 
Liam Coleman
Director, Retail & Commercial Bank
The Co-operative Bank P.L.C.
For and on behalf of the officials involved.

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