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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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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: sharbadji ahmed <ahmedsharbaji@yahoo.fr>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 21:07:27 +0100 (BST)
Subject:


Dearest One,
Thanks for your Immediate response, How are you doing today? hope fine and you are perfectly doing well in health. My name is Maryann Benson Fred.I am from Cote Divoire in West Africa Africa. 24years old, 5ft 8inches tall, Single never married, black hair and brown eyes. I want to assure you that Color, Race, Religion, or Nationality makes no difference to me . What i see in people are their Personality and Character. I promise you all that makes up a defined and a refined LOVE and i have a special reason why i decided to contact you immediately going through your profile which i was well satisfied with. I decided to contact you because of the urgency of my situation here. I am presently living in Senegal due to the Civil War fought in my country some years ago. My Father ( Dr Benson Fred was the CHAIRMAN MANAGING DIRECTOR OF Fred & SONS INDUSTRIAL COMPANY IN THE CAPITAL CITY OF MY COUNTRY ( Abidjan), Also the PERSONAL ADVISER to the former HEAD OF
STATE, before the rebels attacked our house one early morning & kill him with my mother, together with My younger sister.
 
It's only me that is alive because I wasn't around when this happened, I was in the University where am schooling, I'm doing my first year in accountant, I then manage to abscond to follow west African country  (SENEGAL ) where am residing now in '' REFUGEE CAMP. I decided to contact you, due to the problematic situation which am passing through here in this camp. We are not eligible to go out from the camp unless we took permission. It's just like one staying in the prison, but I believe by God's grace i will extricate here soon.
 
l don't have any relatives now whom l can go to all my relatives abscond in the middle of the war the only one l have now is Rev Patrick James who is the pastor of the (United Church of Christ, Dakar Branch) here in the camp he has been very nice to me since i came here but i am not living with him rather i am leaving in the female's hostel because the camp have two hostels one for women & the other for men.

Please listen to this, i have my late father's statement of account and death certificate here with me which i will send to you later, because when he was alive he deposited some amount of money in one of the leading bank which he used my name as the next of kin, the amount in question is $7.4M(Seven Million Four Hundred Thousand USDollars). So i will like you to help me transfer this money to your account and from it you can send some money for me to get my traveling documents and air ticket to come over to meet with you. I kept this secret to people in the camp here, the only person that knows about it is the Reverend because he is like a father to me.

The Pastors Tel. number is (+221 77 -294 - 53- 42)  If you call tell him you want to speak with me, then he will send for me in the female hostel. As a refugee here i don't have any privileged to anything be it money or whatever because it is against their law. I want to go back to my studies because i only attended my first year before the tragic incident that lead to my being in this situation now took place.
 
NOTE; As soon as I receive your positive response showing your interest, I will put things into action immediately and will educate you more on the way you will assist me receive the money, in the light of the above, I shall appreciate an urgent response indicating your ability and willingness to handle this transaction sincerely.

Regarding to the above i will like you to be confidential and don't tell it to anyone for i am afraid of loosing my life and the money if people gets to know about it. Remember i am giving you all this information due to confident I confide on you. I like sincere, kind, respectful, honest and understanding people, truth and hard working. I love English language but I would like to know many others if God gives me the opportunity but i speak English very well. However I will like you to call me because we still have a lot to discuss. I want to know a bit about you and you can send your picture to me too because i have just sent mine here as an attachment.Thanks & God bless you, looking forward to your urgent and earliest response and have a pleasant day.
Yours In  Love Maryann

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