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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: mary koume <m_koume3002@yahoo.fr>
Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 18:50:40 +0200 (CEST)
Subject: Dear Sir,


Dear Sir,

It is my pleasure to contact you for a business venture which I and my Son intend to establish in your country.I am Mrs Mary Koume and i am contacting you from Cote d'Ivoire in West Africa.

It is true that I have not met with you before but I believe one has to risk confiding in someone to succeed sometimes in life.

There is this amount of Four million Three Hundred US dollars($4,300,000.00) which my late Husband kept for us with a bank here in abidjan before he was assasinated by unknown persons.

Now I and my son have decided to invest these money anywhere safe enough outside our country for security and political reasons.

We want you to help us transfer these fund from here into an account in your country for investment purposes on areas were tax will not be much

If you can be of an assistance to us we will be pleased to offer to you 8% of the total fund.

I await your soonest response.

Respectfully yours,
Mrs.Mary Koume.


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