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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: "Internet Programs" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <fund2010@rogers.com>
Date: Sun, 5 Dec 2010 21:46:27 +0100
Subject: Dear User Of The Internet

Attention: Dear User Of The Internet

How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family? We hope this mail meets you in a perfect condition. This is a total cash prize of US 500,000.00 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 and extracted from over 700.000 companies. We are using this opportunity to thank you for using the internet daily.

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 {$500,000.00} five Hundred Thousand US Dollars, we have authorized Mr. Fred Williams to assist you in getting your compensation check across to you.

The name and contact address of Fred Williams is as follows;

Compensation Head Office
Contact Agent: Mr. Fred Williams
E-mail: fund2010@rogers.com
Tel: +234-802-8642146

Finally remember that we have forwarded instruction to the Mr. Fred Williams on your behalf to send the cash prize of Five hundred thousand United State of America Dollars to you as soon as you contact him without delay. Please we will like you to accept this token with good faith as this is to show our little appreciation for using the internet.

Thanks and God bless you and your family.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Yours Faithfully,
Mrs. Bessel Harris
© 2010 World Internet Programs

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