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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: "sgt.arthur.hugo" <arthurhugo100@aim.com>
Reply-To: arthurhugo11@aol.com
Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2010 19:49:07 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: How Are You And Your Family? Hope All Is Well.


How Are You And Your Family? Hope All Is Well.
 
My name is ( sgt 1st class ) Arthur Hugo , I am an American soldier, serving in the military with the army??S 3rd infantry division. With a very desperate  need for assistance, I have summed up courage to contact you. I found your contact particulars in an address journal. I am seeking your kind assistance to  move the sum of ( $28 million u.s.dollars ) twenty eight million united states dollars to you, as far as i can be assured that my share will be safe in your  care until I complete my service here.
Here below is how we discovered the money:
some money in various currencies was discovered in barrels at a farm house near one of sad dam’s old palace in Baghdad -Iraq during a rescue operation, and it  was agreed by my crew members that some part of this money be shared among us before informing other people since we are the first that saw it. This was quite an illegal thing to do, but i tell you what no compensation can make up for the risk we have taken with our lives in this hell hole of which my brother in-law was killed by a road side bomb last time. You can view the link attached to this mail and read how we discovered the money: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm

The above figure was given to me as my share, to conceal this kind of money became a problem to me but finally I was able to seek for the help of a British  contact that is working here, and his office enjoy some immunity, I was able to get the package out to a safe location entirely out of the trouble spot. He does not know the real contents of the package, and believes that it belongs to a British/American medical doctor who died in an raid here in Iraq, and before giving up, trusted me to hand over the package to his family in united states. Now that I have found a very secured way of getting the package out of Iraq for you to pick it up, I will advice you get back to me immediately promising me your honesty then I will discuss it with you in details’ with the  information you need to know about the money. I am sure that you will be willing to assist me, and I believe that my money will be well secured in your hand.
I want you to tell me how much you will take from this money for the assistance you will give to me. One passionate appeal I will make to you is not to discuss this matter with anybody, should you have reasons to reject this offer, please and please destroy this message as any leakage of this information will be too bad for us soldier's here in Iraq. I do not know how long we will remain here, and I have been shot, wounded and survived two suicide bomb attacks by the special grace of god, this and other reasons I will mention later has prompted me to reach out for help, I honestly want this matter to be resolved immediately, please contact me as soon as possible with my e-mail address which is my only way of communication.

God bless you and your family.
Sgt. Arthur Hugo

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