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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: "Mail Services" (may be fake)
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 02:00:22 +0100
Subject: Alert ACTIVATE YOUR MAILBOX IS ALMOST FULL ACTIVATE NOW

Your mailbox is almost full.
1969MB           2000MB

Your email address is at risk your are mandated to update your account,or risk loosing it!!!

kindly click continue to add more MB to your mailbox.

Regards,
Mail! Member Services
********************************************************

The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material.
Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited.
If you received this in Spam, please kindly move it to inbox

 

Anti-fraud resources: