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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: "READ AND CONTACT US URGENTLY" <megalot64@aim.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 15:07:27 -1000
Subject: CONTACT US URGENTLY

Dearest in Christ, >From my heart, I offer you my friendship and my greetings; I hope this letter meets you in good time. It will definitely be surprising to you to receive this proposal from me since you do not know me personally, However, I am sincerely seeking for your assistance in this confidential transaction. My name is Mrs. Maria Fung, a widow from Malaysia. I am married to late Dr. James Fung an Engineer who worked with the Shell petroleum Company in Europe. We were happily married for years without a child of our own; we were both born again Christians. Before the death of my dear husband on the 5th of June 2005,he deposited the sum of US$18.9million[Eighteen million Nine hundred thousand United States dollars] with a private diplomatic security/finance company in Europe and I was the only person that knows about it because of the close relationship between my late husband and I. The security company does not know that the consignment contains money because my husband deposited the consignment as personal effect/artifacts. Recently, our family doctor told me that it will take the mercy of GOD for me to live for one more year due to my illness (cancer), what disturbs me mostly is one of my legs that is now bad as a result of the illness, Having known my condition I decided to entrust the US$18.9million to a Devoted Christian OR Muslim individual that will use this to fund to go into investments, assist churches and mosques all over the world orphanages and widows and also propagate the word of God and to ensure that the house of God is maintained. Bblessed are the hands that giveth, so I took this decision to contact you since I don't have any child of my own that will inherit the money. My husband's relatives are not Christians and I don't want my husband's hard earned money to be misused by unbelievers, I don't want a situation whereby the money will be used in an ungodly manner, Hence the reason for taking these bold decision to contact you for assistance. I am no more afraid of death because I know where am going to after I depart from earth. I know that I am going to be in the bosom of the lord. Exodus 14vs14 says that the lord will fight my case and I shall hold my peace. I can only communicate with you via email because of my health, I might not be able to call you because of my health condition and because my in-laws are around me, I don't want them to know about this development. As soon as I receive your positive reply, I shall give you the contact of the Finance Company in Europe so that you can contact them and claim the consignment of money from them. I shall send you the deposit document and a letter of authority from me to empower you as the original beneficiary of this fund. I want you to always pray for me, my happiness is that I lived a worthy life and bear in mind that whoever that wants to serve the lord must serve him in spirit and in truth. Please always be prayerful all through your life. Please contact me only on my private email address: zulumagama2006@yahoo.com OR mrsmariafung@aim.com Yours truly Mrs. Maria Fung. Malaysia

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