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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: "Mr Tony E. Smith" <mr.tony.es2@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2007 00:25:31 +0000
Subject: Dear Friend,(please reply very urgent,

Dear Friend,

I am Mr TONY SMITH Bank Manager of Lloyds TSB bank Tower Bridge Road
London . I have urgent and very confidential business proposition for you.

Consequently, my proposal is that I will like you to stand in as the
owner of the money I deposited in a security company in two trunk
boxes though the security company does not know the contents of the
boxes as I tagged them to be photographic materials for export. I am
writing you because I as a public servant (Manager with the bank), I
cannot operate a foreign account or have an account that is more than
$1m. If this proposal is acceptable to you, please get back to me
(mr.tonyemil@yahoo.co.uk) so that i tell you how the money come and we can
work out a remuneration for your participation in the transaction,and also
let you know on how we hope to achieve this objective.

Please reply so that we work out means of getting this done.Endeavor to
give me your most confidential email address, phone and fax numbers for
efficient and effective communication.

Sincerely Yours,
Mr Tony E. Smith
Manager
mr.tonyemil@yahoo.co.uk

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