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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: "Mrs. Maria Stevens" <mariastevens008@msn.com>
Reply-To: mariastevens0a@hotmail.com
Date: Thu, 10 May 2007 01:49:31 +0000
Subject: KINDLY ASSIST ME




Dear beloved, 
  It is my pleasure to contact you as i came across your email contact through a directory on the Internet.I thank God for making us to meet through this medium.I pray that you shall be willing to assist me after going through the contents of this letter.
 My full name is Mrs. Maria Del Stevens,a Swedish and wife to late Mr. David Yandell Stevens.My dearest husband was allegedly shot dead in  his farm here in Zimbabwe on  25th of April 2000 by ZANU-PF supporters who were sent by the Zimbabwe president (Robert Mugabe).You can confirm this by copying and pasting this link on your Internet.It was published on the Internet.To confirm this,copy and past the link below on your Internet browser:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/725643.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/818766.stm
After the death of my beloved husband,Robert Mugabe being the president went ahead to expel all White farmers in Zimbabwe.He recruited the services of his war veterans who succeeded to jeopardize the occupation of white-owned commercial farms in which an estimated 70,000 farm workers have been displaced.About hundreds of white farmers and black settlers have been killed since invasion of the war veterans into the farm.Since then,we have decided that we must eradicate this problem.Actually,we are taking  great risk now by staying here in Zimbabwe.Now,our phone lines are bugged, and all our movements are being monitored by Zimbabwe’s (Robert Mugabes) secret Police.As a result,all our communications are presently through emails which serves as our safest means of communication.We(White farmers in Zimbabwe) have taken our case to the United Nations although even all the threats of transactions and the subsequent sanctions from the West against the Zimbabwean Authorities has not stopped Robert Mugabe (The president of Zimbabwe) from his irrational actions against us He is insisting that our farm land (some of which we bought with our money and most of which we inherited from our fathers) belongs to the Zimbabwe government.The government of Zimbabwe has asked us (all white-farmers) to give up our farms to black farmers or risk going to prison. So far, more than 1,400 farms owned by whites have been invaded,confiscated and other or our properties has being claimed by the Zimbabwe government.It is also painful that about 133 white farmers were arrested for defying the orders to leave their farms under the controversial land reform program of the government.
  Before the death of my beloved husband,we made some pile of money but since I can not keep the money in Zimbabwe any longer due to insecurity,I used the services of a Diplomatic Courier Company to move this money (registered as official documents) out of Zimbabwe to Europe. At present, the sum of my money is $32,750,000.(Thirty two million, seven hundred and fifty thousand United States Dollars) is in Europe and hopefully,it would be paid into an offshore account.Can you assist me?If you can, please contact me. All you need to do is to claim this money from the Courier Company.You will be required to contact the Courier Company that moved this money (official documents) out of Zimbabwe and to Europe. 
   I shall ensure that all necessary particulars which can facilitate the claim of the  money on my behalf will be forwarded to you as soon as my humble request is granted.You will be entitled to 35% of the total fund for your assistance and I shall  be grateful if you help/advise me on the proper and most convenient way of investing this money in your country.Hopefully,you will accept to assist me and respond positively to my request.
Yours in the lord
Mrs. Maria Stevens

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