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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: Patricia Vincent <patriciavincent31@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: patvin1960@cantv.net
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2010 18:13:21 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Bless you




Bless you,

It's true we do not know each other but God knows us all.I have a pressing need at the moment which is some one to stand as my beneficiary to claim my late husband's one trunk box deposit with a security company here in Republic of Benin, I wanted to claim it but they reffered me to an agreement they reached with my husband the very day he made the deposit that only his registered next of kin being myself will introduce a foreign beneficiary to them who will claim the box on behalf of me. My husband's family members are seriously searching for my whereabout to collect the documents of the deposit from me but I have ran out of the village to another town with the documents so I plead that you help me secure the box which contains the sum of $10m inside it though my husband registered it as containing family valuables for security reasons, please don't hesitate to reply immediately for me to send you the contact address of the security company here in
Republic of Benin and introduce you to them as my late husband's foreign beneficiary.

I await your positive reply.

Regards.

Mrs Patricia Vincent.



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