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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. Alexander" <ugo@geniusmapsystem.com>
Reply-To: alexanderbooker172@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2020 10:06:50 -0700
Subject: *****Re:Attn*****

Greetings,

I know that this may come as a surprise to you, please do not treat this as an unsolicited email, I have made so much research before contacting you, I understand and believe that you are someone special and have decided to contact you in this personal confidential Issue.

I must express my proposal without reservation and I wish to tell you that I have contacted you because of a business of 500kg of Gold / precious metal, 23+ Carats purity, presently deposited in my company’s vault.

I want you to try and understand me and also place yourself in my position as a vault manager of a safekeeping company, a lot has happened and I am aware of a whole lot of issue and has put up 17 years with this company, I have nothing to write home about. Hence I have missed many opportunities and do not wish to see more go by.

I have contacted you because you can help me to achieve this, knowing that in today Gold world market, 500kg of Gold / precious metal is not small money, your last name is what has attracted me to contact you and I just need to know if I can trust that whole amount of Gold / precious metals in your care to sell them and we share the amount realized from the sales.

The depositor of the Gold bullion in question died three years ago and my company is not aware of his death, he is a foreigner and has a similar last name with you, I happen to have some of his documents with me, I am requesting that you stand as his relative/partner so that we can process the release to you, this will only be known by both of us only, as you need to maintain absolute secrecy about it.

I am assuring you of 100% success and you will be needed to come down and visit the security company and inspect the processing of the transaction, but if your duty could not permit you, I can get an attorney to represent you in any dealings with the company, as an insider I will inform you on all to do to get this transaction done and I will also stand to attest that you are his relative since I am the oldest serving staff in the company.

I want you to read this thoroughly and get back to me, I am very ready to release the certificate of Deposit to you as we proceed forward, I will implore you to have this deal accomplish with me and we need an urgent move to secure this transaction.

I will wait to hear from you.

Sincerely,

Mr. Alexander.

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