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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: Capt.Lucky Makomi <makomilucky@aim.com>
Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:35:38 +0100
Subject: Hello


Greetings,
May I use this opportunity to ask for your wisdom, understanding and =
attention to this mail of mine. I do also ask you not to regard this mail as =
one of the junk mails.You would have receive this letter long ago, but I was =
considering the fact that we have not met each other before and wonders what =
will be your mind to read such message from an unknown person. In fact, this =
has given me a lot of worrisome before I courageously decided to propose you =
on this venture.

I sincerely come in good faith to you with utmost assurance that you will =
never regret given your attention to this mail at the end of the day.
My name is Capt. Lucky Makomi , I am in the Engineering military unit here in =

Luanda, Angola, and we have about $12.5 Million US dollars that we want to =
move out of the country. My partners and I need a good partner someone we can =
trust.It is legal money and we are moving it through diplomatic means to send =
it to your house directly using a diplomatic courier services. The most =
important thing now is to gain your trust and have your word of honor. Once =
the funds get to you, you take your 40% out and keep our own 60%. Your own =
part of this deal is to find a safe place where the funds can be sent to.
Our own part is sending it to you. If you are interested I will furnish you =
with more details. The whole process is simple and we must keep a low profile =
at all times.
Waiting for your response.
My private email address is makomi2007@aim.com
Regards,
Capt. Lucky Makomi

Anti-fraud resources: