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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: "Ben Cooper" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <cooperben3@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:48:52 +0100
Subject: Urgent Reply.

Attn:

Please, do reconfirm to this office, as a matter of urgency if this
woman Mrs Janet white your true representative over your due
inheritance funds which has been gazette to be released, via key telex
transfer (ktt )-direct wire transfer to you,so that the federal
government will not beheld responsible for paying into the wrong
account name.

However, we shall proceed to issue all payments details to the said
mrs.white, if we do not hear from you within the next seven working
days from today.

Congratulations in advance.
Best regards,
Ben Cooper.

Anti-fraud resources: