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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: (sent from abused email account)
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:57:40 -0400
Subject: You are to contact me via my most confidential email: patrick.chan113@hotmail.com




Good Day,

I am Mr Patrick Chan the Executive Director of Heng Seng Bank in the Hong Kong.I am contacting you to assist in the claim of some outstanding fund which was left by one of my very good client Christian Eich who died in a AF4590 plane crash on his way to America.He left no known next of kin.I have personally contacted you to assist me act his next of kin. The amount involved is $15 million ( Fifteen million United States Dollars) which is the account balance.You can view the website for more details on the full incident how it occured.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm
I look forward to hearing from you with your full name and address and contact phone number asap. You are to contact me via my most confidential email: patrick.chan113@hotmail.com<mailto:patrick.chan113@hotmail.com>

Yours faithfully,
Mr Patrick Chan.

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