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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: =?UTF-8?Q?=6A=61=65=6D=20=73=61=64=61=6D=73?= <jaemsadams@walla.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:57:41 +0200
Subject: *****SPAM***** =?UTF-8?Q?=55=72=67=65=6E=74=20=72=65=73=70=6F=6E=64?=


Spam detection software, running on the system "spam1.pem.inap.sea.dotster.net", has
identified this incoming email as possible spam. The original message
has been attached to this so you can view it (if it isn't spam) or label
similar future email. If you have any questions, see
the administrator of that system for details.

Content preview: FROM MR JAMES ADAMS Avenida santo Centrum 25, 28004 Cotonou-Benin
EMAIL: jamesadams1@hotmail.fr DATE:13th Febuary 2008. My Dear Friend, Best
Wishes to You! [...]

Content analysis details: (10.5 points, 7.0 required)

pts rule name description
---- ---------------------- --------------------------------------------------
0.1 RDNS_NONE Delivered to trusted network by a host with no rDNS
1.6 MISSING_HEADERS Missing To: header
0.0 HTML_MESSAGE BODY: HTML included in message
1.1 MPART_ALT_DIFF BODY: HTML and text parts are different
1.7 MIME_HTML_ONLY BODY: Message only has text/html MIME parts
1.1 HTML_MIME_NO_HTML_TAG HTML-only message, but there is no HTML tag
2.0 ADVANCE_FEE_2 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
1.4 ADVANCE_FEE_3 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
1.5 ADVANCE_FEE_4 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)

The original message was not completely plain text, and may be unsafe to
open with some email clients; in particular, it may contain a virus,
or confirm that your address can receive spam. If you wish to view
it, it may be safer to save it to a file and open it with an editor.


Anti-fraud resources: