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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: "John Douglas" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <douglasjohn85@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Sep 2010 10:20:17 +0100
Subject: Good day..

Good day,

May I have your urgent attention on this matter? I am Mr.John Douglas
by name and I happen to be an accountant with Intercontinental bank plc.There's an urgent business proposal that I would like to share with you, one of my clients deposited the sum of (FIFTEEN MILLION THREE HUNDREDAND FOURTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS) with my bank. On the 4th of May 2002,my,Client, his wife and their three children were involved in a drasticplane crash with his entire family. I have tried to locate theirsurviving relatives, by checked all available public files and
embassies,but all my efforts had proved abortive.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/1968616.stm
http://www.aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=20020504-1

I would like to have this fund transferred in your care as soon as
possible as the relative of this man.So that we can share the fund.
Let me know that you are interested on this deal, so I may feed you with theprocedure and the rest information that you would like to know soon by sending this informations below.

Full Name, Address, Occupation, Nationality, Mobile/phone number,
Age,Sex.

I shall be looking forward to hearing from you at my personal email address which.

Best Regards
John Douglas

Anti-fraud resources: