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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: "Sarah Lembe" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <sarahlembe@live.co.uk>
Date: Wed, 4 Aug 2010 00:16:07 +0100
Subject: Sarah Lembe

Dear,

My name is Sarah Lembe from Liberia , a victim of war; I lost all my family during the war in Liberia and presently on a refugee camp in between Chad Republic and Nigeria . My family is blessed with diamond which is part of the cause of the war in Liberia . My father was a wealthy man, but we lost everything during the war, am the only survivor of my family.

Before my father died, he informed me of a Cash deposit of his last transaction, I don’t want to disclose this to anybody here in camp as I don’t trust them. Can you be of any assistance to me? I do check my email two times a day; I have the keys of the deposit (in a trunk box) with a security finance house, the first thing is to send the keys to you, which I will like to have your address to send the keys. I wait for your reply so that I can give you details.


Thanks
Sarah Lembe

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