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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: "Sheila Hancock" <sheila_hancock@outlook.com>
Reply-To: sheila-hancock1@outlook.com
Date: Sat, 6 Jul 2013 03:11:08 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: Dear Beloved




Dear Beloved,

I am Mrs. Sheila Hancock a 78-years old woman living in United Kingdom,
who God has
touched in a glorious way to fulfill His blessing toward charity/Mankind.

I have asked God for forgiveness and I believed He has because He is a
merciful God. I
will be going in for an operation on Friday, which the Doctor has
indirectly said is
50/50 chance of surviving after diagnosis me with Cancer In Two (2) years
ago. Read
Romans 1:16-17

I have decided to WILL/donate my late husband entitlement of $10.2Million
USD (Ten
Million Two Hundred Thousand Dollars) which I inherited from him to you
for the good
work of God and to serve His divine purpose and favor to humanity as that
has be my
late husband unfinished work before his death. Recently, my Family members
have engross
into my late husband's inherited funds after receiving the message from
the doctor that
I might not survive the operation. They want me dead to enable them
inherit the fund
for their selfish interest, and I we not allow that to happen. I am only
privilege to
send you this letter with the help of a lady nurse here who has be so kind
to me
believing that a total stranger like you can fulfill my last wish to
humanity.

All I ask of you is to make sure that you use this fund for the work of
God to fulfill
His divine purpose and favor to humanity. It is clear that I don’t know
you BUT God
known you more than I can ever do. For this purpose I bow my knees and
pray for you,
May the Lord bless you abundantly as you fulfill this mystery toward
charity and
Humanitarian service. Thus, you are to use 60% of the funds for this
Humanitarian
Mission while 10% goes to my family Lawyer and 30% goes to you for your
faithfulness
toward God and mankind.

Lastly, I want you to pray for me regarding my health situation, because I
have come to
find out that to everything there is a season; and a time to every purpose
under the
heaven. (Ecclesiastes 3:1–8) May the Grace of our Lord, the love of God,
and the sweet
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you now and forever more, Amen. I we
send you the
information of my lawyer once i hear from you.

Yours Faithfully

Mrs. Sheila Hancock

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