The Classic Nigerian 419 Scam
PLEASE NOTE: The persons, companies or organisations mentioned in the example(s) below are not responsible for these e-mail scams. Organisations and individuals, pretending to act on behalf of these institutions/persons, initiate these scams and abuse the reputable names of these well-known institutions/persons, to add a false sense of security to these fraudulent e-mails. Also note that some scammers act on behalf of certain organisations that do not even exist.
Date: 06 October 2006From: [DELETED] <[DELETED]@hotmail.com>
Subject: Kind Regards
FROM:MR.[DELETED]
[DELETED] BANK LTD,
HONG KONG.
tel/fax: [DELETED]
Tel:[DELETED]
Email:[DELETED]@hotmail.com
Let me start by introducing myself. I am Mr. [DELETED] Chief Executive Officer of the [DELETED] Bank Ltd.
Before the U.S and Iraqi war, our client a business man made a numbered
fixed deposit of (167,211,702.56 HKD) for 18 calendar months, this is valued
to Twenty One million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only in my
branch. Upon maturity several notice was sent to him,even during the war,
three years ago (2003). Again after the war another notification was sent
and still no response came from him. We later found out that [DELETED]
and his family had been killed during the war in bomb blast that hit their
home at Mukaradeeb where his personal oil well was.
http://www.iraqmemorialwall.org/iraqicasualties.html
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/names.htm
After further investigation it was also discovered that [DELETED] did
not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paper work
of his bank deposit. And he also confided in me the last time he was at my
office that no one except me knew of his deposit in my bank. So,Twenty One
million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars is still lying in my bank
and no one will ever come forward to claim it. What bothers me most is that
according to the laws of my country at the
expiration of four years six months the funds will revert to the ownership
of the Hong Kong Government if nobody applies to claim the funds.
Against this backdrop, my suggestion to you is that I will like you as a
foreigner to stand as the next of kin to [DELETED] so that you will be
able to receive his funds for our mutual benefit.Please endeavor to observe
utmost discretion in all matters concerning this issue,Should you be
interested please send me your full names and current residential address
and I will prefer you to reach me on the email address below.
E-mail: [DELETED]@hotmail.com or you can call me directly on
Tel:[DELETED] And finally after that I shall provide you with more
details of this operation.Note that this business would follow all the
international laws of banking and an attorney would handle all the legal
Documentations to ensure that the funds are claimed legally so that we would
enjoy our funds in peace when it is finally transferred from my country.
Your earliest response to this letter will be appreciated.
Kind Regards
Mr. [DELETED]Notice the bad spelling and grammatical errors as well as the strange formatting of the e-mail. The Chief Executive Officer of a well-known bank will never spell this bad. A bank will never use a free e-mail account like hotmail to send e-mails to the public, they will use a corporate e-mail address. So by just looking at the origin, spelling and format of the e-mail you can easily tell that it is fraudulent.
