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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: "Mr. Stephen Melvin" <xmlpsw@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mmrstephen16@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2023 21:12:00 +0100
Subject: Reply and let me know if you received this email!!

Greetings from Mr. Stephen Melvin,

My quest to locate a responsible friend and partner to bring my dreams
to a reality, hence l took this bold step to contact you through this
medium and I would not like you to take offense that l am bothering
you since you do not know me nor have we met before.

I contacted you through this medium for a business that will benefit
the both of us greatly, if handled properly and please forgive me if I
interfere in your privacy, my name is Mr. Stephen Melvin and I want
to ask for your help in getting back the money left behind by a
citizen of your country, Late Mr. Muhammad Ali Salman. If this will
endanger your position and reputation, I would not have contacted you.
This is safe and beneficial to both of us financially. I am presently
the Chief Information/Security Officer of our bank here in Kansas,
United States of America and please do not expose this transaction for
any reason. I will give you more information about myself, our bank
and the transaction itself once you accept to do this with me.

Late Mr. Muhammad Ali Salman lived and worked in Kansas, United
States of America as a real estate businessman and he deposited in our
bank the sum of Seven Million, Ninety Thousand United States Dollars
(US$7,090,000.00) as fixed deposit for a period of two years in 2015.
This deposit has matured and he hasn’t come for it since then. We have
tried to reach him and could not, his telephone number cannot be
reached, emails sent to him kept bouncing back as undelivered and we
never got any response from the letters posted to his residential
address. This issue prompted me to carry out an independent
investigation about his whereabouts and I later realized with shock
that he was dead sometime in July 2017 by ghastly car accident while
on vacation in Brazil. In order to verify the truth of the matter, I
went to Brazil and confirmed he was dead, it is a sad story for a
kindhearted and generous person like him. This matter was not reported
to our bank and nobody in our bank is aware of this except me.

After further investigations it was also discovered that Late Mr.
Muhammad Ali Salman did not declare any next of kin in his official
papers including the paper work of his bank deposit. I have also
checked our records, there is no information of him relating to your
country and he did not put a nominee at the time he made the deposit.
All these made it impossible for me to locate any of his relatives.
Since this is the issue, I want you to apply as the beneficiary of the
deceased to claim the deposit from our bank since it is believed he
was from your country according to his name. I know there are a lot of
your citizens here in the United States of America, but it is only
someone in your country that can successfully make this claim because
of the way our bank works. It does not matter whether you know him or
not, it does not matter if you have any kind of relationship with him
or not, I will guide you all the way to make this claim. It is not a
matter of being greedy or having bad morals, it is not the best to
leave the money to eventually end up in the hands of a few corrupt
government officials while we have the opportunity to live better with
it. This transaction is a risk-free transaction and as the Chief
Information/Security Officer of our bank, the final approval of your
application will be done by me. Once I approve it, you will have the
right to claim the money.

My proposition to you is to present you to the bank as the Next of kin
and beneficiary of my deceased client so that the bank will pay this
Seven Million, Ninety Thousand United States Dollars (US$7,090,000.00)
to you so that we can share the amount on a mutually agreed percentage
of equal parts (50:50) for each of us when the claim is made. All
legal documents to back up your claim as the deceased Next of Kin will
be provided by me. All I require is your honest cooperation to enable
us to see this transaction go through. I guarantee you that this will
be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect you from
any breach of the law. And we have to do this within the shortest time
possible because the money will be reverted to the Treasury Department
account if not claimed now. If you are willing to do this with me,
write back and I shall inform you on what to do next to make sure you
receive the money.

I know there are many fake flying emails online and my mail is real. I
will provide verified information as proof of honesty to you. I am
waiting for your consent in order to move to the next step towards
getting the money.

Your earliest response to this letter will be appreciated.

Kind Regards,
Mr. Stephen Melvin.

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