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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: "Dr.Albert Pinto" <albert.pinto100@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: albert.pinto1206@yahoo.com.hk
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2008 08:13:08 +0200
Subject: *****SPAM***** Attention!


Spam detection software, running on the system "mail.tugab.bg", has
identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message
has been attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or label
similar future email. If you have any questions, see
The administrator of that system for details.

Content preview: Attn:Sir/Ma, My name is Dr.Albert Pinto Chairman of con=
tract
award and monitoring committee ofMinistry of Local Government and rura=
l development,
my duty as empowered by the S=E3o Tom=E9 & Pr=EDncipe Government is to=
make provision
of street lighting, construction and maintenance of roads, drains and =
public
spaces, provision and maintenance of bus shelters and traffic centers,=
organization
of sports and cultural activities etc. [...]=20

Content analysis details: (6.4 points, 5.0 required)

pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- ---------------------------------------------=
-----
-1.8 ALL_TRUSTED Passed through trusted hosts only via SMTP
2.3 FORGED_YAHOO_RCVD 'From' yahoo.com does not match 'Received' he=
aders
1.3 MISSING_HEADERS Missing To: header
1.3 NA_DOLLARS BODY: Talks about a million North American do=
llars
0.0 BAYES_50 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 40 to 60%
[score: 0.5000]
1.2 ADVANCE_FEE_2 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419=
)
1.4 ADVANCE_FEE_3 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419=
)
0.6 ADVANCE_FEE_4 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419=
)
-0.0 AWL AWL: From: address is in the auto white-list



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