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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: "HSBC Bank plc." (may be fake)
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 19:00:20 -0400
Subject: Please Submit Your Refund Payment



Dear PayPal Customer,


During our regularly scheduled account maintenance and verification procedure we have detected a
slight error in your PayPal online account.

This might be due to the following reasons:


1. A recent change in your personal information (ie. change of address, email address)

2. An inability to accurately verify your selected option of payment due to an internal
error within our systems.


Please fill in all the details that are required to complete this verification process.


To do this we have attached a form to this email. Please download the form and follow the
instructions on your screen. NOTE: The form needs to be opened in a modern browser which has
javascript enabled (ex: Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 3, Safari 3, Opera 9)


Please understand that this is a security measure intended to
help protect you and your account. We apologize for any inconvenience.


If you choose to ignore our request, you leave us no choice but
to temporary suspend your account.

Sincerely,
PayPal Account Review Department.


Please do not reply to this e-mail. Mail sent to this address cannot be answered.
For assistance, log in to your PayPal account and choose the "Help" link in the footer of any page.



Anti-fraud resources: