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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: "Martin Kalou" <martin2uuu@yahoo.com> (may be fake)
Reply-To: martin2ccc@hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 21:00:19 +0000
Subject: Greetings From Martin

Greetings,

Dear with due respect and humbly i write you this letter which i believe you will be of great assistance to me and my little sister, i got your email address through the Internet when i was searching for a reliable trust person who will not betray me.I am Martin Kalou, the Only son of late Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin Kalou,my father was a Gold and Diamond merchant based in Freetown (Sierra Leone) he was poisoned to death by his business associates on one of their business trips. were our mother died when we was a baby and since then my father took us so special.
before the death of my father in a private hospital in Freetown.

He secretly called me before he died and told me that he has the sum of usd $10.5m (Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand U.S. Dollars) deposited in a Finance House, that he used my name as his only son for the next of kin in depositing of the fund. He also explained to me that it was because of this wealth that he was poisoned by his business associates, that I should seek for a good foreign partner in a country of my choice where I will transfer this fund and use it for investment, after our father death our family member want to kill me and my younger sister because of our father properties, i and my Sister escaped to Dakar-Senegal where we are now, I am humbly seeking for your assistance in the following ways.

To assist me in retrieving this money from the Finance House.
To serve as a guardian of this fund because of my young age.
To make arrangement for me and my sister to come over to your
country to further our education, I am willing to offer you 20% of the total sum as compensation for your effort/input after the successful transfer of this fund to your nominated account overseas, and you can indicate your option towards assisting us as I believe that this transaction would be concluded within seven days, If you are interested of helping us Please send us the following information so that i will use it and nominating you in Finance House as my representative.


(1) Full Name (2) Home Address (3) Age And Occupation.
(4) Country (5) Telephone And Fax Number.
I am waiting for your reply thanks and God bless you.

Best Regards,
Martin Kalou.
martin2nnn@hotmail.com


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