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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: "Fayad Bolkiah."<hartmutrb_1@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sat, 6 Feb 2010 23:46:38 +0100
Subject: [* SPAM? *] Partner Me In Business


Content analysis details on host master.avtoprognoz.ru: 16.3 points, 7.0 required
-1.7 ALL_TRUSTED Passed through trusted hosts only via SMTP
3.5 BAYES_99 BODY: Bayesian spam probability is 99 to 100%
[score: 1.0000]
3.6 FH_DATE_PAST_20XX The date is grossly in the future.
1.5 MILLION_USD BODY: Talks about millions of dollars
1.5 NA_DOLLARS BODY: Talks about a million North American dollars
1.0 US_DOLLARS_3 BODY: Mentions millions of $ ($NN,NNN,NNN.NN)
1.3 MSOE_MID_WRONG_CASE MSOE_MID_WRONG_CASE
1.5 ADVANCE_FEE_2 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
1.1 ADVANCE_FEE_3 Appears to be advance fee fraud (Nigerian 419)
3.0 FORGED_MUA_OUTLOOK Forged mail pretending to be from MS Outlook
-0.0 AWL AWL: From: address is in the auto white-list



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