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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: Susan <msusan@f-mail.net>
Reply-To: ms.susanmartins@f-mail.net
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:02:23 -0400
Subject: Urgent need

Good day. Dear Friend. i got your mail address from the Foreign Department in our Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office so I decided to contact you for partnership and assistant. So that you will be of help to me. Before I will go on let me introduce my self to you so that you will be able to know me well and much better. First of all my name is Ms Susan Martins my mother from Virginia united state of America why my father from Ghana-Accra in West Africa. My father and my mother where living in America and I was born in America. My mother died when I was only 7 yrs and I am the only daughter to my parents so when I was 9yrs my father took me to his own town in Africa where he Establish his companies and commence others business as a well rich business Man since then I am with my father till on the 1st of January 2008 my father died by poison why coming back from a club meeting. So after the burial of my father his brothers send me away I mean my uncles and they said that I am not the daughter of there brother so they took all my father had properties and his companies and they said that in Africa here that woman did not have any right over her father properties so they drove me away from my father's house and I can not do anything to them because I am only 18yrs now. Then the only thing I have now is the documents my father used to deposit Gold and money here in this country and know one knows about this .My father disclosed this to me because I am his only child and he told me that he wants to use this gold to Establish another investment in overseas and he hand over the documents to me and tell me that encase anything happens to him in any way that I should take this document and look for a foreigner from oversea who will help me to claim this funds and gold from the security company and send it out from this country to his or her country for proper investment of this gold and the money. . Since my father's family have drove me away and I have no where to go or stay so I went to the security company to claim the gold and the money the company Director Mr. John Mensah have agreed to release the gold and the money to me as the depositor because my late father deposited the gold and the money in my name as the next of kin because I am his only child but I see that I can not claim this on my own because I am only 22yrs I can not handle the money and the gold and invest it that is why I contact you to help me claim this gold and this and transfer it to your destination in your country so that I can be able to come over to your country for the establishment an investment of the gold then I will continue my Education there in your country .Please I will reward you if you can assist me and handle this transaction with me. Please kindly get back to me so that I can furnish you with the needed information to get this transaction done if you agreed to help me with trus t and honesty without any disappointment. I will stop until I hear from you. Please reply me on my private email: m.susanmartins@f-mail.net >From Miss Susan Martins

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