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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: "CATHY & DAVE SEIDEN" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <cathy.dave@aol.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 10:53:13 -0800
Subject: CATHY & DAVE SEIDEN:

 
DEAR SIR/MADAM,
 
MY WIFE AND I WON THE Downers Grove, Illinois MILLIONS LOTTERY OF 1 MILLION DOLLARS AND WE HAVE DECIDED TO Plans for the windfall include investing in college funds for our two children and a bank draft of 70thousand dollars each, for two lukcy person wish the Google Inc we prvide for us. “Education is very important to us and this lottery win takes so much pressure off.” When asked if he had any advice for other lottery players Dave said, “Sign the back of your ticket… and let an organized person hold onto it. TO VERIFY,PLEASE SEE OUR INTERVIEW BY VISITING THE WEB PAGE BELOW:
 
http://www.megamillions.com/winners-gallery/downers-grove-resident-misplaces-1million-winning-lottery-ticket
 
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS WAS AMONG THE EMAILS WHICH WERE SUBMITTED TO US BY THE GOOGLE, INC AS A WEB USER; IF YOU HAVE RECEIVED OUR EMAIL PLEASE, KINDLY SEND US THE BELOW DETAILS SO THAT WE OUR BANKER CAN SEND YOU A CERTIFIED BANK DRAFT OF  70 THOUSAND DOLLARS IN YOUR NAME , AS SOON AS I RECEIVE YOUR REPLY I'LL FORWARD YOUR
 
FULL NAME:
MOBILE NO:
AGE:
ADDRESS:
COUNTRY:
OCCUPATION:
 
BEST REGARDS,
CATHY & DAVE SEIDEN
 

Anti-fraud resources: