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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: "Prof Charles Soludo" <charles_soludo222@mail2world.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: charles_soludo222@walla.com
Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 17:39:34 +0200
Subject: Re:Response Needed

Prof Charles Soludo
Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria
Personal E-MAIL; charles_soludo1234@yahoo.com

Attention: Sir


IMMEDIATE CONTRACT
PAYMENT.CONTRACT#:MAV/NNPC/FGN/MIN/009.

From the records of outstanding contractors due for
payment with the federal government of Nigeria your
name and company was discovered as next on the list of
the outstanding contractors who have not received
their payments.

I wish to inform you that your payment is being
processed and will be released to you as soon as you
respond to this letter. Also note that from the record
in my file your outstanding contract payment is
US$8.7million dollars (Eight million seven hundred
thousand united states dollars Please re-confirm to me
if this is inline with what you have in your record
and also re-confirm to me the followings
1 ) Your full name.
2 ) Phone, fax and mobile #.
3 ) company name, position and address.
4 )profession, age and marital status.

As soon as this information are received, your payment
will be made to You from central bank of Nigeria.
Please get back to me via this confidential email for
further explanation charles_soludo1234@yahoo.com


Regards,

PROF. CHARLES SOLUDO.
Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria.



Anti-fraud resources: