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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: "Sgt. Brandon Gary" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <garysgtb@aim.com>
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:12:26 +0200
Subject: Re:

Hello friend,

I am in need of your assistance. My name is Sgt Brandon Gary. I am in the Engineering military unit here in Ba'qubah in Iraq; we have some amount of funds that we want to move out of the country.

My partners and I need a good partner someone we can trust. It is oil money and legal. Basically, since we are working for the government we cannot keep these funds, but we want to transfer and move the funds to you, so that you can keep it for us in your safe account or an offshore account. However, we are moving it through Diplomatic means, to send it to your house directly or a bank of your choice using Diplomatic Courier Service. The most important thing is that can we trust you? Once the funds get to you, you take your 30% out and keep our own 70% .Your part of this deal is to find a safe place where the funds can be sent. Our own part is sending it to you. If you are interested I will furnish you with more details. Nevertheless, the whole process is simple and we must keep a low profile at all times. Waiting for your urgent response via my private email: garysgtb@aim.com
This business is risk free.

Regards,
Sgt.Brandon Gary

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