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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. Patrick Douglass" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <patrickdouglass22@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:59:59 -0800
Subject: RE: ATM Payment Notification

RE: ATM Payment Notification

From The Desk Of
Dr. Patrick Douglass
Executive Director, ATM Service.

Attention: Beneficiary,

This is to officially inform you that we have verified your contract / inheritance file presently on my desk, and I found out that you have not received your payment due to your lack of co-operation and not fulfilling the obligations giving to you in respect to your contract /inheritance payment.

Secondly, you are hereby adviced to stop dealing with some non-officials in the bank as this is an illegal act and will have to stop if you so wish to receive your payment immediately.

After the board meeting held at our headquarters, we have resolved in finding a solution to your problem, and as you may know, we have arranged your payment through our SWIFT CARD PAYMENT CENTRE in Europe, America and Asia Pacific, which is the instruction given by our new elected president, Dr. GoodLuck Ebele Jonathan (GCFR) Federal Republic of Nigeria.

This card centre will send you an ATM CARD which you will use to withdraw your money in an ATM MACHINE in any part of the world, but the maximum is ($15,000) Fifteen Thousand US Dollars in three transactions per day. So, if you like to receive your fund this way, you are advice to get back to me with the following information below as to enable me get back to you quickly with full details on how to receive your card.

You are hereby advice to get back to me with the following information as follows:

(1) Your Full Name
(2) Address where you want the payment centre to send your ATM CARD.
(3) Phone And Fax Number

We shall be expecting to receive your information you have to stop any further communication with anybody or office.

On this regards, do not hesitate to contact me with the above mentioned information on 234-809-317-8740.

Thanks for your co-operation.

Best Regards,

Dr. Patrick Douglass
Executive Director, ATM Service.

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