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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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Fraud email example:

From: Mrs.Maria Mbote <drmbote2003@tatanova.com>
Reply-To: Mrs.Maria Mbote <mrsmariambote1@rediffmail.com>
Date:
Subject: LETTER FROM MARIA

From:Mrs. Maria Mbote

Compliments of the day!!

I am Mrs. Maria Mbote a former staff of the Federal Ministry of Aviation
undergoing medical Treatment. I am married to Dr. John Mbote who worked with
National Petroleum Corporation for nineteen years before he died in the year
2003.
We were married for eleven years without a child. He died after a brief
illness that lasted for only four days.Before his death we were both born again
Christians.Since his death I decided not to re-marry or get a child outside my
matrimonial home, which the Bible is against. When my late husband was alive he
deposited a huge sum of money with one finance/security company in Europe.
Presently, this money is still with the Security Company.This money was
accumalated from an onshore engineering award my husband won during the last
military regime.
Recently, my Doctor told me that my condition with the special grace of
God would soon be okay.Though what disturbs me most is that am diagonised
to be having spinal abnormalty. Having known my condition I decided to
donate this fund to a church or better still a God fearing individual that
will utilize this money the way I am going to instruct here in. I want a
church or individual that will use this to fund orphanages, widows etc
propagating the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained. The
Bible made us to understand that blessed is the hand that giveth.
I took this decision because I don't have any child that will inherit
this money and my husband&#8217;s relatives are not Christians and has being
maltreating me with the only motive to take away the funds from me becuase of my
faith and trust in God since his death hence I don't want my husband's hard
earned money to be misused by this unbelievers. I don't want a situation where
this money will be used in an ungodly manner, hence the reason for taking
this bold decision.
I am not afraid of death hence I know where I am going. I know that I am
going to be in the bosom of the lord one day. If you will be of assistance, I
will surely appreciate and thank you for your kindness in giving me this
help.You can respond using email address mrsmariambote1@uymail.com
Thank you

Mrs. Maria Mbote.


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