Lyvitt - Hall Solicitors

This notice is issued by the Financial Supervision Commission (“the Commission”) in accordance with the powers conferred upon it under Section 22 of the Financial Supervision Act 1988.

Lyvitt - Hall Solicitors

www.lyvitthall.co.uk

Advance Fee Fraud letters

Advance Fee Fraud letters, often referred to as “419 letters” are sent with the purpose of luring the recipient into becoming a victim of advance fee fraud. They have gained their colloquial name due to the prevalence of them originally emanating from Nigeria, (419 being the number of the relevant offence under the Nigerian Penal Code), however, they may now arrive (or appear to arrive) from many countries worldwide. Many are now sent using email, commonly originating from “web based” email accounts.

The Commission has recently received information regarding such letters purporting to originate from the above entity.

The above entity claims, within the letters, to have an address at 14 St Georges Street, Douglas, IM99 1WP Isle of Man, United Kingdom Enquiries carried out by the Commission have established that such claims are completely false. The above entity does not have an address at nor any other genuine connection whatsoever with this address.

Lyvitt Hall Solicitors is not a company incorporated within the jurisdiction of the Isle of Man. It is not registered as a foreign company having established a place of business on the Isle of Man. It is not registered as a business name on the Isle of Man.

The Commission has established no association between this entity and any genuine Isle of Man companies.

The Commission has established no genuine links between this entity and the Isle of Man.

The letters seen by the Commission give telephone and fax numbers to contact the above entity. None of the numbers given relate to lines on the Isle of Man.

The letters seen by the Commission bear a close resemblance to those seen in relation to a former Public Notice issued by us in October 2003, regarding an entity using the name Scott & Hall Solicitors. You can view that earlier Public Notice at

In reality, anyone responding to such letters will soon find themselves being required to make various payments ahead of receipt of the proffered funds. This is the Advance Fee Fraud. Ultimately the fraudsters will disappear taking the advance fees with them. The proffered “funds” do not exist and are merely a ploy to persuade the victim to part with money.

In some instances the fraud has been perpetrated against individual victims over long periods of time and losses to the victim have run into thousands or on occasion millions of pounds.

Persons receiving letters or emails matching the above description, from wherever posted or despatched, should under no circumstances respond to them.

If you are resident within the Isle of Man and have already replied to one of these letters or, more importantly, if you have already paid any money over in respect of one, you should contact the Isle of Man Financial Crime Unit without delay by writing to: