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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: "MR SIPHO V. THANDO" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrsiphovilakazi@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 11:18:33 +0200
Subject: INHERITANCE CLAIM!

GOOD DAY,
I am Mr. Sipho V.Thando, Accountant/manager at the Internal auditing department
of a leading bank in South Africa; In my department, we discovered an abandoned
sum of US$17,500,000.00(Seventeen Million, Five Hundred Thousand United State
Dollars only) in an account that belonged to one of our foreign customers who
died along with his entire family, we want to present you as the next of kin of
the deceased, so that the funds can be approval in your name.

The mode of sharing after a successful transfer shall be 60% for us and 40% for
you, if you are interested give me your full names and direct telephone number
so that I can contact you with more details.
Await your response
Regards,
Mr. Sipho V. Thando

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