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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: <ecolins@indiatimes.com>
Date: Thu, 3 May 2007 22:45:23 +0100
Subject: GET BACK TO ME URGENTLY PLEASE

ecolins@indiatimes.com has sent this email to you to recommend the following page from visitdublin.com, the official tourist information web site for Dublin: http://www.visitdublin.com/contact/default.aspx.

Dear Sir,

Let me get straight to the point, I have a friend who at the moment is fighting a divorce case with his wife, at the Court of Appeal here in the UK. The court has ruled that he pays his wife 250,000 pounds yearly for the rest of his life, and he is also to give to her one of his home s worth 1.5million pounds. I believe if you watch the BBC news channel you would have heard about it. Otherwise you can have a read for yourself by looking up the link below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4670758.stm

My friend Mr. Kenneth McFarlane is a very reasonable businessman who believes the judgment of the Law Lords was too harsh and it is a ploy by his ex-wife to have a share of his hard earned money. I had a meeting with Mr. McFarlane's private financial consultant and Account portfolio manager who has brought to my knowledge that Mr. Macfarlane has a deposit of £18.5million GBP with a security firm in Europe. I have been informed that he wants to move this deposit out and he is willing to do so if he finds a worthy and responsible foreign partner to assist him in doing so. This I believe you can come in. I have not discussed this matter yet with Mr. McFarlane as I had been advised by his financial consultant; he intends to keep it away from the public to avoid his wife knowing about it which will mean him losing half of the funds to her.

As soon as I have your interest and confidence in this deal, I shall have a meeting with Mr. Macfarlane himself and we can discuss the possibilities of how we could invest in your proposal, thereby helping to move the funds out.

PLS REPLY ME THROUGH MY PERSONAL EMAIL
edwacollins@yahoo.co.uk

Regards
Edward Collins

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