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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: "MARK ZUCKERBERG" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <onlinefacebookprogs@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2018 20:49:49 -0500
Subject: FACEBOOK XMAS PROMOTIONS!!!

My name is David Merchant  from the Facebook Headquarters based in the USA,
I am a Facebook Online Coordinator. I was assign to contact you by Facebook CEO and Founder Ceo Mark Zuckerberg. Am contacting you because I have good news for you from Facebook…
There’s an online draws that was conducted by a random selection of Emails you were picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the Facebook in other to claim Nine Hundred and fifty thousand United states Dollars (950,000.00)
CONGRATULATION !!!
Here is the mail you should contact: onlinefacebookprogs@gmail.com
In other to claim your winning prize you are to Reconfirmed some Data-Bases in which the Facebook Board will make use to get your Winning Certificate and all Necessary document available for you before they can release your winning Funds to you today.
 
 
This promotional program takes place every three years. You may be rest assured that this is real and legal. There are some scam artists around but thanks to the FBI, 3000 of them have been arrested
 
 
This is one of our innovations to encourage Facebook users, Our own way of saying a BIG THANK YOU, And to all our users for making Facebook their number one Social Networking to hook up with families, Friends, And new people all over the World.
Name:
Full Home address:
Country:
Age: Occupation:
Photo Id:
Mobile Number:
Email Address:
 
Thank you for your time and good luck with claiming your winnings.
Thanks
Agent David Merchant

Anti-fraud resources: