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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 Elizabeth Allen <drernestebic@gmail.com>
Reply-To: mrselizzyallen@gmail.com
Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2017 09:13:08 -0700
Subject: Hello Dear

--
Dear

I came across your identity and contact in my desperate quest to
successfully locate the next of kin to an account file forwarded to my
desk for liquidation. I am Mrs Elizabeth Allen, I work with the legal
department of a local financial institution. My job here is to see
that
any unclaimed account is certified and confirmed UNCLAIMED before
final liquidation instruction is passed on any such account file.

With the above explanation of my responsibility in carrying out my
duty, it became very important that I make contact with you because an
account currently valued at GBPS £15.3 Million (Fifteen million, three
hundred
Thousand Pounds Sterling) was forwarded to my office for final search
of next of kin to the deceased account holder file, the account in
question was last operated in April 2010 and by law is due for
liquidation.

I have tried to locate the next of kin to this account all to no
avail. In my quest to locate such person, I came across your
identity.Coincidentally you bear
similarity with the identity of account holder and this is the major
reason why I have contacted you. I have been mandated to certify the
next of kin to this account before the liquidation within thirty
official working days, Therefore I seize this opportunity to make a
confidential proposal to you as follows: -

We both work together on this file; I will use my official capacity to
front you as the next of kin to this account file. Files relating to
this account will be amended to suit this claim as soon as you have
agreed work with me. Please kindly respond to this letter via my
private Email address for further clarification : I also
want to guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate
framework that will protect you from any breach of the Law here and in
your country.

I will await your positive response to this mail as soon as possible
via this email address
mrselizzyallen@gmail.com

Sincerely,
Mrs Elizabeth Allen

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