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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: "Pamela Wilcox" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <pamelawilcox@gala.net>
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2010 20:04:23 -0700
Subject: IMPORTANT (Contact DHL EXPRESS UK)

Dear Beloved,

Greetings to you and your family! This letter might come to you as a surprise and the temptation to ignore it as not serious could come into your mind; but please consider is a divine wish and accept it with a deep sense of humility.

You would also be asking why I have decided to chose you amongst the numerous internet users in the world, precisely I cannot say why I have chosen you but do not be worried for I come in peace and something very positive is about to happen to your life right now and to the lives of others through you if only you can carefully read and digest the message below.

Before I move further, permit me to give you a little of my biography, I am Pamela Wilcox, 78 Years old woman and the wife of Sir Wilcox Alex, dual citizen of United States and Britain who died in a Plane crash on Monday the 7th of September 1998 GMT 14:22 UK alongside with my daughter while they were flying from New York to Geneva. Please see site below for more information.

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9809/swissair.victims.list/index.html

After the death of my husband, I became the Head of his investment and now that I am old and weak and have decided to spend the rest of my life in my Ranch before i finally leave the world, but before the death of my husband we had a plan to use the last days of our lives to donate half of what we have worked for to the less privileged and charity homes and the other half for ourselves, family members and close friends, and it is so unfortunate that my husband is not alive today to do this with me , hence I have decided to do this philanthropic work on behalf of my late husband.

Presently, I have willed out almost half of our assets to several charity homes and to some of the less privilege in different countries. Despite the agreement between my late husband and I to give aid to the deprived, we also agreed to render support to an individual we have not meet before in life due to the fact when we were still young in life we received an anonymous help from an individual we did not know and which we were never able to identify,the impact we got from such a gesture made us to do same.

I am sorry to inform you that you will never have the chance to know me because I have just concluded the assignment which my husband and I have agreed upon before his sudden death and you happened to be the beneficiary of our last will. hence I need you to do me a favor by accepting our offer and using it to help the poor in Haiti.

I deposited a cheque in the sum of 2.400,000.00 (Two Million Four Hundred Thousand British Pounds) with DHL UK one week ago to deliver to you, but i was very ill so i could not send you an email until today. what you have to do now is to contact the DHL GLOBAL EXPRESS UK as soon as possible to know when they will deliver your package to you.

For your information, I have paid for the delivering Charge, Insurance Premium and Clearance Certificate Fee of the Cheque showing that it is not a Drug Money or meant to sponsor Terrorist attack in your Country

You have to contact the DHL GLOBAL EXPRESS UK now for the delivery of your cheque with this information bellow;

Contact Person: Mr.George Greg
Email Address: georgegreg@dhlglobalservice.org
Phone: +447024057874

Note : The only money you are expected to pay is 230 British Pounds for the security keeping of the package, but for some security reasons i ordred your package from DHL to OLIVE SECURITY COMPANY so that it will be secured there.

I would have paid the fee but the company insisted that I should not because they don't know when you will be contacting them and to avoid demur rage or further cost.You are to reconfirm the below information to them to avoid any mistake on the Delivery.

Postal address;
Full Names:
Direct telephone number;

Below is the security keeping code: (Olive/03473/F) of you draft, you are to also present it to them for verification before delivery.

Please, try to contact them as soon as you receive this mail to avoid any further delay.

Be also notified that I will no longer be reading my emails or surfing the internet as I have retired completely from the outside world to private ranch where i have cleared all charges .

I leave you in peace to rest in the lord .

Yours Faithfully,
Pamela Wilcox


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