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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: "Dr. Thomas Brown" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <backup@secretarias.com>
Date: Wed, 14 Jul 2010 02:13:02 -0400
Subject: Attention: Dear Prominent User of the Internet

Attention: Dear Prominent User of the Internet How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family? This is from a total cash prize of US 50,000,000 Million dollars, given to the first FIFTY (50) people who will be compensated in this world internet programs. All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site Through computer draw system. Due to your effort, using internet programs indoor and in your office, we want to compensate you and show our gratitude to you with the sum of $1,000,000.00 Million United States Of America Dollars we have authorized Mr. Scott Williams to assist your in getting your compensation check across to you. The name and contact address is as follows: COMPENSATION HEAD OFFICE CONTACT AGENT: Mr. Scott Williams EMAIL: backup@secretarias.com TELEPHONE: +23481 3834 8406 Hope to hear from you soon. Dr. Thomas Brown Lottery Co-coordinator. 2010 WORLD INTERNET PROGRAMS

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