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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: "Rhea Smith Chukwugeme" <rhea_ssmith@yahoo.co.uk> (may be fake)
Reply-To: rheassmith@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 20:46:20 +0530
Subject: SOS

Hello Sir,
I would want to want to introduce myself to you,my name is Rhea Smith Chukwugeme,34,female from Nigeria.I am using this opportunity to try and secure a good business relationship with you.
My husband ,Lawrence.A.Chukwugeme,was a worker in the
federal ministry
of finance,he was not exactly what you would call
rich,but we were
comfortable ,we lived in a flat and had two cars,i
also had a fairly large
shop where i sold clothes too,so life was infact
blossoming.In February
2000,my husband was attached to the budgetary planning
committee,he did
banking and finance in the university and graduated
with good
grades.Well to say that with this promotion came
problems would be an
understatement,though intially it was a move up the
ladder of life,we could begin
to afford better things too.One night in May,this was
like four months
after the promotion,Larry came home very late,on his
face you could see
there was fear,he looked as if he had seen the devil
himself,i tried as
i could to get him to tell me the problem but he
remained
adamant,telling me that he was ok,i could see that he
was not,to allay my fears he
bought me some jewelleries ,i wondered where he got
the money from ,but
knowing my husband ,he would probably take it back to
where he bought
it from if i asked him a question like that,in
mid-june,larry told me
he was travelling to the Uk,it was a surprise to me,i
initially thought
the government was sending him for courses in the
UK,but he told me
that he was going there for reasons of his own,that he
would let me know
when he came back,i must tell you here that unlike
india,african men are
the head of the house and their wives are more like
slaves to them,you
do whatever your husband wants you to do.Larry made
such trips several
times over the next couple of months never telling me
anything other
than it was for our future,at this time ,my younger
sister came back from
school,so i was not really bored anymore ,one day some
men came to the
house to look for Larry,they said they were from his
former working
place,i asked them what they meant by former,i was
shocked to hear that my
husband had quit working some three months ago,they
left with the
message that he should report himself to work the next
day,this was
the straw that broke the camel's back,that night Larry
told me a story
that made me realise that i had never known my husband
all the time we
were married,he told me that him and two of his
fiends[i cannot afford to
call them friends now],who were working with him in
the same place had
somehow made some changes to budget figures for a
certain allocation
and had made fifteen million dollars,i was shocked,he
further told me
that the trips he made to the Uk,were because he was
taking the funds out
of Nigeria in bits ,he had deposited his own share
which was three
million dollars,into a security company for safe
keeping,why i asked him
did he not tell me all this while and why did he not
put it in
account,he said he was afraid that a day would come
when the fraud might be
found out,a probe into their accounts might be
ordered,so he did the only
wise thing ,siphon the money abroad ,deposit it in a
security company,he
deposited it as bonds and stocks,not wanting even
those4 pple to be
aware of his loot,he then produced the certificate of
deposit that was
issued to him when he deposited the luggage and on it
i saw my name as
the beneficiary,i was drained,i just held him and
cried myself to sleep
that night.the next day ,he reported himself to the
office,they were
detained for a while ,him and some other colleagues
,both guilty and
innocent alike ,after about three days they were left
off the hook,but he
came home a broken and sick man,i never got to know
what happened to him
in that place where they were detained as larry died
some three days
after,the coronary inquest said it was of natural
causes,we left it at
that,i was too surprised and heartbroken to even
gather my wits.
It is five years now since larry left me,i have kept
my secret for this
long,but my dear Sir,i have to relocate as
life is
getting
difficult here,i pay weekly for the upkeep of that
money in the custody of a security
company.I have decided to move to where i would be
least known ,open up a
business and begin a new life.
I have told you this with the intention that you and i
can work
together,I have a plan that i know would work,if you and i would give it a real try,the
security company has a
courier section and with your permission and assistance,i
would name you as
the recipient of this luggage[that the money is deposited in] and have it sent to Asia as that is where i would want to really concentrate since it is a very big place,for this i would want to know if you can do it,i would
be sendng someone down to Asia too whom i can rely on to meet you , he will be
with you for as long as it will take for me to tidy things up here and come over too,I will be willing
to give you some
part of the money as compensation for your
assistance,your exenses too i can ceritify would also be paid back to you.I would want to
stop here for now.
I look forward to your reply,
Regards,
Rhea smith Chukwugeme





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