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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: "Mrs. Helen Jones" <charles664elen@yahoo.com.vn>
Reply-To: "Mrs. Helen Jones" <helenjones342@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2015 10:52:33 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: Greetings my dear,


 Greetings my dear,

I don't know how my generosity offer may sound to you, especially as it comes from a stranger, as it's the only change I have to give my wealth away for charity work due to my health situation. I am Mrs Helen Jones.I am willing to donate the sum of US$ 3,000,000.00 million dollars to your care.

I will like to hand you over this fund as a donation to help flood affected and poor street children or to establish a manufacturing company to create job opportunity for jobless people as I cant invest byself due my prsent condition of ill health , I want to hand over this fund to you as it was my vow to establish charity project before I leave the world. I took this decision because I don't have any Child that will inherit this fund, and my husband relatives have seized all his investments due to that I don't have a Child.

I will offer you 25 percent of the total fund for any expenses that may occur during this charity work, and I want you to always pray for me for my up coming surgery.

Lastly, I honestly pray that this money when transferred will be used for the said purpose even though I am late then, because I have come to find out that wealth acquisition without Love is vanity.

I await urgent reply.

Respectfully yours,
Mrs Helen Jones

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