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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: William Legro Richard Junior <william_legro_chambers@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 23:54:43 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Mr. VICTIM-FULLNAME reply urgently pls........


Attention:Mr. VICTIM-FULLNAME,

I am Mr. William Legro of William Legro Chambers, United Arab Emirates. We are one of the investigative law firms in the Middle East Of Asia that have been mandated by the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate on various pending cases of financial fraudulent cases brought to the commission on the purported to be perpetrated by their Nigerian citizens.

Your Name and contact address was forwarded to us by the commission.

You are hereby required to forward to us full details of your transaction with the said impostor in your reply with facts and figures to help us establish our point of focus on how to trace them. All important details to help us with this case will be needed.

Your contact address and phone numbers will be needed as well.

Please, this directive should be complied with only if you are one of those interested in fishing out these miscreants in the society and world at large.

Yours truly,

William Legro
Att-at-law.


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