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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.Sandra James" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <westernuniodepartmentoffice@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2017 12:37:08 -0700
Subject: WESTERN UNION CASH PAYMENT




Attention: My Dear Friend,
How are you, hope you are fine? This message is coming to you from WESTERN UNION BOARD OF DIRECTORS, it has come to our notice that you have been unable to receive your inheritance and compensation fund worth of $3,600,000.00 (Three Million six Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) which you tried to receive all to be avail because of bad official in charge that's why you haven't received the fund till date and we have decided to take a positive step to stop those criminals from destroying the image of this country that's why the western union board of director has decided to release the fund to you through our service western union money transfer worldwide because we are reliable, easiest and fastest miss for you to receive your overdue payment in short period of time as long as you complied with all the necessary requirement.
We program that you will be receiving the sum of $2,500.00 (Two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars) daily unit you withdraw the total sum of $3,600,000.00 (Three Million six Hundred Thousand United States Dollars) dollars completely.
But note that before we proceed on this transaction, you required to re-confirmed this information below in order to enable us renew and update your payment file after that we will proceed to the next step of action, so be advised to provide your personal information as stated below.

Your Name:.....................
Your Address:....................
Your Occupation:........................
Your Telephone & Mobile Number:...............
A Copy of Your ID Card Or Passport:..............

In order to PROOF the legitimacy of this transaction, we decided to issue your first installation payment of $2,500.00 (Two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars) as an evidence to show that this transaction is real, genuine and 100% percent risk free, but you can not pick up the payment because it's (ON-HOLD) and it needs to be RE-ACTIVATED before you can be able to pick up the first installation payment that was already issued in your name today and the activation fee will only cost you the sum of $189.00 (One Hundred And Eighty-Nine Dollars)

HERE IS YOUR FIRST INSTALLATION PAYMENT OF $2,500.00 (TWO THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS) DETAILS BELOW.
1) Sender Name: LINDA WILFRED
2) Text Question:A1
3) Text Answer: A2
4) Country: COTONOU - BENIN REPUBLIC
5) MTCN Number: 827-150-(****)

Contact Person: Mr Peter Cruz (Director)
Office Address: 15, Goodluck Crescent, Cotonou Benin Republic
Telephone Number: +229-689-439-57
E-mail Address: westernuniodepartmentoffice@gmail.com
We assure you that as soon as you comply with us and provide all this requirement, we will re-activate and start releasing your daily confirmation number which is (MTCN) of $2,500.00 (Two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars) to you, which you will use to withdraw your payment as we programmed without any further delay.

Best Regards,
Mr Peter Cruz.

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