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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. Patricia Maria Howard" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <patmaria74@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Dec 2015 06:40:16 +0100
Subject: My Dearest Friend

My Dearest Friend

Hello my beloved.I do respect your privacy here. But i have no other ways to contact you or even to communicate with you, then now I found the easier place to meet someone like you, Please don¦t think that I may have taking an advantage to know you on this Social Network I have no any other means to get an advice from you than this.

First and foremost, I apologize using this medium to reach you for a transaction of this magnitude. I am Mrs. Patricia Maria Howard, from republic of Ireland, born in the state of Ohio USA. I am legally married to Mr. Michael woody Howard, a British citizen born and brought up in Switzerland, I live in Switzerland with my husband for 32 years before we moved down to United Kingdom in 1985 after my husband retirement in 1974, I am 74 years old by his grace, I am suffering from long time cancer. All indication from my doctor that my conditions are really deteriorating and it is quite obvious that I wouldn't live more than three months. My dear husband was involved with the January 2000 Kenya airways plane crashed as you can see on the news line web site. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/ Africa/6627485.stm, I choose you after viewing your profile and I have confident in you because I have prayed. I am willing to donate the sum of $20.5m U.S dollars, to the less privileged.

I await urgent reply. You can also contact my lawyer on his

Private email (honjerrybrown@gmail.com)

His Name is Jerry Brown

Cell phone Number +447024032173.

Remain blessed,

Mrs. Patricia Maria Howard

Get back to me on patmaria74@gmail.com

Anti-fraud resources: