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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: "Mirabel Douglass" <mirabeldouglass@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2008 07:39:08 +0300
Subject: Hello From Mirabel.


Hello Dear,

My name is Mirabel,am a young girl of 23years old,single and never married
before,am 5.8fit tall,slim stature,open minded,honest,trusted,and caring and
just to mention but a little.I hope honesty and trust they say build a
strong relationship.That is why I have the confident to write you this brief
mail.Today i found your mail id in a front forwarded page on my yahoo id
then i took the opportunity to write to you as I will really want us to be
good friends,and I will so much appreciate it if we can click together as
one great friend and lovers.

Though we have not meet ourself before but i have the believe that it take
one to know one.So Please kindly mail me back so that we can know more about
ourselves and I will give you my pictures for you to know more about me.
Please I'm waiting eagerly to see your sweet and lovely mail soon.

Yours Sincerely,

Mirabel.

Anti-fraud resources: