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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: Helen Philips <helenphilips52@info2link.biz>
Reply-To: philips_hellen007@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:09:47 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Hi Dear this is my offer,


Hi Dear this is my offer,

 

I am  Mrs Helen Philips. from Ivory Coast ,I am 58 years old,i am
suffering from  pancreatic cancer which i was diagnosed with two years
from now,from all indication my conditions is really deteriorating and
it is quite obvious that i can't work or do any stressful
thing,according to my doctors they have advised me that i may not live
for the next two months,this is because the cancer stage has gotten to
a very bad stage.

 

I was brought up from a motherless babies home was married to my late
husband for twenty years without a child ,My Husband (johnson) died in
a fatal motor accident.

Since his death I decided not to re-marry,I sold all my inherited
belongings and deposited all the sum of USD3.5million dollars with a
Bank here in Ivory Coast but later I instructed the bank to move the
funds to United states of America where i intended investing the money
in Real Estate..

 

Presently, this money is still with the bank in USA and the bank just
wrote me as the true owner to come forward to receive the money which i
have explained to them my situation then they advised i rather issue a
letter of authorization to somebody to receive it on my behalf since I
can not come over because of my illness or they get it confisticated or
return back to the US treasury Department as unclaimed fund  and
instead of getting it confiscated i rather have someone whom i can
trust to recieve the funds and utilise it according to my wishes.

 

Presently, I'm in a hospital in Ivory coast where I have been
undergoing treatment for my sickness . I have since lost my ability to
talk and my doctors have told me that I have a short time to live,
though with the lords grace i pray to continue fighting to stay alive.

It is my last wish to see that this money is invested/donated to any
individual of my choice and distributed each year among the charity
organization,E.g the poor homes,the motherless babies home where i came
from,the deaf homes,and churces etc.

 

All i seek for is a God fearing person like you ,who will carry out my
last wishes and before i emailed you today i prayed and the holy spirit
gave me the confidence to send you this email.I took this decision,
before i rest in peace because i do not know if i shall live to see
another day.

 

As soon as I receive your reply I shall give you the contact of the
bank in USA.All i need from you is a confidential assurance that the
funds when recieved by you will be used for the said purpose,Nowadays
there are so much scams going on in the internet and it is diffcult to
trust but i dont know why the Holy spirit still approved me to email
you about this out of few email addresses i have from the
internet,yours was the only one that was approved for me to contact.

 

Reply to my private email; philips_hellen007@yahoo.co.jp

 

Waiting for your reply.

God Bless you,

Mrs Helen Philips.

 



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