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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 PATRICK WILLIAMS" <elderpatrick_2@yahoo.co.uk> (may be fake)
Reply-To: patrick_ewilliams@yahoo.co.uk
Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2008 11:04:54 +0400
Subject: HELLO SIR

Good day to you Sir,
this letter must come to you as a surprise but l believe it is only a day that people meet and become great friends and business partners, i am a sierra leonian,l live here in united kingdom and i want to invest in your country u.a.e,so please can you give me some idears in which business can we put this money into?
i decided to invest in another good country like U.A.E, as i was introduced by sombody because of over task the reqired me to pay here in U.K,
I got your contact from a business directory here in U.K and decided to contact you directly for investmen purposese in your country which will inventuarly involve $5.4million u.s dollars, so if you are interested to help me invest this money through your company or give me an idea on how you wish us to invest it, please give me your full names,your business,your country of origin,your age, and your tele numbers so tha, i will call you for more discoutions
Thanks
Elder Patrick Williams
London U.K


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