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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "Andrew Wilson" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <andrewwillsonn@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2018 14:51:08 -0800
Subject: VERY URGENT PAYMENT

Sir,
I am Mr.Andrew Wilson, staff with the Bank Of Benin.
I and the chief security officer of the Bank of Benin have completed an arrangement with an officer in computer section Engineer Wings to deliver your total contract sum amounting to $2,500,000.00 USD
Reason is because according to the information gathered from the Bank DATA BASE,you have been waiting for so long to receive your money without success.
We discovered that you have meet all the statutory requirements of the Bank of Benin in respect of your Over Due payment, But the problem behind the delay is that of interest group.
A lot of people is interested in your payment and those people are merely doing paper works with you and that explains why you receive phone and email messages from different people everyday.
Also we find out that some of the officials have benefited a lot of money from you with the pretext of assisting you to receive your money and I can assure you that this may last for years yet nothing happens if you do not do away with those officers that pretend to be assisting you.
And for security reasons do not disclose this arrangement with anybody until you receive cash at your doorstep.
We told the courier firm that the box contains photographic and film materials and when open will loose its efficacy We did not declare money because courier do not carry money.
Note that we have concluded that you will compensate us for this risk as soon as your money is delivered to your hand.
Kindly maintain top most secrecy as it may cause a problems if you reveal this arrangement to anybody.
You can be rest assured that the Delivery within 72 hours is guaranteed as soon as i hear from you.
 
Yours faithfully
Mr.Andrew Wilson

Anti-fraud resources: