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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: "Fred Ezzeh" <fredbikoezzeh@msn.com>
Reply-To: fredezzeh03@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 01 Sep 2005 08:49:08 +0000
Subject: Good day to you;Please I need your consent.

Good day,

May I introduce my self and my purpose of contacting you. I am barrister
Fred Ezzeh, Principal Partner of renowned law firm in Lagos Nigeria.

I am obliged to contact you as instructed by one of my client, to search for
a credible person who can receive and honestly safeguard his inherited money
into his personal or company account.
Please note that my client reliably confided in me that he has an amount of
$20.5m, which he legitimately inherited from his late father.

Being a young man without any business acumen, he has no option than to
mandate me to solicit for a competent person or co-operation that will
manage this fund for him.
Having reposed confidence in you, I decided to contact you, hoping that you
will find this proposal interesting. Please on your confirmation of this
message and indicating your interest I shall give you more details, so you
please endeavour to let me know your decision upon your receipt of this
mail.
it is important to let you know that for your expected help, you will be
compensated with 20% of the total sum.

Upon reply kindly include your telephone and fax number for easy
communication.
Thanks for your understanding and I will tell you more about this fund on
the receipt of your positive reply. If you are not interested, do pardon me
for contacting you.

Thanks in anticipation.

Yours faithfully,

Barr. Fred Ezzeh


Anti-fraud resources: