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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: "Director of Finance and Information" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <iwright855@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 00:27:08 +0100
Subject: Re-Trust

Attention, I came to know you in my Private Search for a reliable and reputable person to handle this confidential transaction.I only hope we can assist each other. I have packaged a financial transaction that will benefit both of us, as the Director of Finance and Information of the bank it is my duty to send in a financial report of all yearly transaction to my head office in the end of each year. On the course of last year 2010 end of year report, I discovered that my branch in which I am the Director of Finance and Information made an excess profit of USD10,500,000.00 of which my head office is not aware of and will never be aware of It, I have since placed this funds in a safe box in our security vault without any beneficiary. As an officer of the bank I cannot be directly connected to this money, this is why I'm contacting you so that you can assist and receive this money. To SHARE. I will offer you 30% of the total Sum of Amount for your assistance. Note that there are practically no risks involved in this transaction, the funds already placed in a consignment box in our vault will be moved over to your country as a diplomatic consignment then you receive it as the beneficiary and deposit the funds in your bank account over there. Please do reply back to me via email: ata.peter1@rediffmail.com and also call me for a heart to heart discussion. Best regards Mr. PETER. UHURU ATA Direct Line: +233-242381569.

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