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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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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: "capt james brian" <captjamesbrian006@hotmail.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2006 17:17:26 -0500
Subject: MATTER OF URGENCY/ASSISTANCE

Dear Friend,
I am Captain Brian James of the US Marine Force on Monitoring and Peace –keeping mission in Baghdad-Iraq.
On the 10th day of October 2006, we were alerted on the sudden presence of some Terrorists camping in a suburb not too far from Karbala here in Iraq. After Immediate intervention, we captured three (3) of the Terrorists, twenty-six (26) were killed leaving seven (7) injured.
 
In the process of torture they confessed being rebels for  late Ayman al-Zawahiri  and  took us to a cave in Karbala which served as their camp. Here we recovered several guns, bombs and other Ammunitions including some boxes among which two contains nuclear weapons, one filled  with hard drugs(cocaine) and the other four to my amazement contain some US Dollars amounting to $7.2M after I and two of my junior intelligent officers counted them. I however instructed them to keep this in high secrecy.
 
I am in keen need of a “Reliable and Trustworthy” person like you who would receive,  secure and protect these boxes  containing the US Dollars for me up on till my assignment elapses in here in Iraq. I assure and promise to give you 20% of this fund, however feel free to negotiate what you wish to have as your percentage in this business..
 
Please assure me of your keeping this topmost secret to protect my job with the US Monitoring and Peace-Keeping mission. Contact me through my personal email capt_bjames@myway.com 
 
Sincere regards,
Capt.Brian James.


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