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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: Eric Igwe <eric0011igwe5@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: eric282igwe0@yahoo.com
Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 19:13:25 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Strictly by Profile Merit / Friend


Dear Friend,

This is an official legal notice for an unclaimed fund left by one of this companies' deceased clients ( name witheld) , who died in a plane crash here in Togo on the 25th December 2003.

I am the director in charge of auditing and accounting unit of Continental Bank of Togo. I discovered the sum of $17.5 Million left in the deceased account and the fund has been lying in as a suspense account,since no one has come up for claim.

I hereby solicit for your immediate response and positive committed efforts to facilitate for the claim of this fund as the next of kin to the deceased.

Upon your positive response to this covenant, I will make all necessary information known to you, as I attached here the website of the incident,
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/africa/12/26/benin.crash/index.html.
Kindly get in touch with me through my email address for more guidelines to the repatriation of this fund.

Yours Sincerely
Mr.Eric Igwe
Alternative Email: eric032igwe@hotmail.fr

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