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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: "SGT. ARTHUR HUGO" <sgt-arthurhug101@hotmail.com>
Reply-To: sgtarthurhugo101@aol.com
Date: Sat, 29 May 2010 08:27:13 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: How Are You And Your Family? Hope All Is Well.




How Are You And Your Family? Hope All Is
Well.
 

My name is ( sgt 1st class ) Arthur Hugo , I am an American
soldier, serving in the military with the army??S 3rd infantry division. With a
very desperate  need for assistance, I have summed up courage to contact you. I
found your contact particulars in an address journal. I am seeking your kind
assistance to  move the sum of ( $8 million u.s.dollars ) Eight million united
states dollars to you, as far as i can be assured that my share will be safe in
your  care until I complete my service here.
Here below is how we discovered the money:
 
some money in
various currencies was discovered in barrels at a farm house near one of sad
dam’s old palace in Baghdad -Iraq during a rescue operation, and it  was agreed
by my crew members that some part of this money be shared among us before
informing other people since we are the first that saw it. This was quite an
illegal thing to do, but i tell you what no compensation can make up for the
risk we have taken with our lives in this hell hole of which my brother in-law
was killed by a road side bomb last time.
 
The above figure was given to me as my share, to conceal this kind
of money became a problem to me but finally I was able to seek for the help of a
British  contact that is working here, and his office enjoy some immunity, I was
able to get the package out to a safe location entirely out of the trouble spot.
He does not know the real contents of the package, and believes that it belongs
to a British/American medical doctor who died in an raid here in Iraq, and
before giving up, trusted me to hand over the package to his family in united
states. Now that I have found a very secured way of getting the package out of
Iraq for you to pick it up, I will advice you get back to me immediately
promising me your honesty then I will discuss it with you in details’ with the 
information you need to know about the money. I am sure that you will be willing
to assist me, and I believe that my money will be well secured in your
hand.
 
I want you to tell me how much you will take from this money for
the assistance you will give to me. One passionate appeal I will make to you is
not to discuss this matter with anybody, should you have reasons to reject this
offer, please and please destroy this message as any leakage of this information
will be too bad for us soldier's here in Iraq. I do not know how long we will
remain here, and I have been shot, wounded and survived two suicide bomb attacks
by the special grace of god, this and other reasons I will mention later has
prompted me to reach out for help, I honestly want this matter to be resolved
immediately, please contact me as soon as possible with my e-mail address which
is my only way of communication.

God bless you and your family.
 
Sgt. Arthur
Hugo

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