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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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Fraud email example:

From: "PASCAL TRAORE" <pascal_traore@yahoo.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: pascal_traore@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 14 Jun 2005 05:37:03 +0000
Subject: ASSISTANCE

Hello,
It must be a little surprising for you . My name is PASCAL TRAORE, a son of Mr RICHARD TRAORE, one of the coffee/cocoa merchant and also a contractor, my mother and my father was killed by the rebels here in Côte d’Ivoire because of political situation here in my country.
Now the reason of my introduction to you, is to assist me to transfer my inheritance that my father left for me into a suspend account before he died, the sum of 8.500.000 Dollars in one of the International bank here in my country CITIZEN BANK. Please sir, I need your financial assistance for legal process so that the bank can transfer the money into your personal account for you to help me invest the money into a profitable business investment in your country. You have to forward me your full name, address and telephone number immediately so that I will forwarded to the bank for them to transfer the fund.
For your financial assistance, I have decide to give you 25% after the successful transfer. Kindly contact me trough my private email address for more information : pascal_traore@yahoo.com
PASCAL TRAORE.


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