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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: margarita samuel <margarita1samuel@rediffmail.com>
Reply-To: ritajohnsonjr@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:47:26 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Greetings from Miss. Rita Samuel.


Greetings from Miss. Rita Samuel.
I am Miss. Margarita Samuel. My mother was an African American while my father was from the French speaking colony of Cote d'Ivoire. I was living with my mother in Quebec, Canada before she died. I lost my mother sometime ago and after her death I came to meet my father for the very first time in Cote d'Ivoire West Africa, though he was also living in Canada with us before he relocated back to Cote d'Ivoire to set up a business.  
Exactly two months and one week after I came to meet my father, he died. He was very sick when I came to meet him. But before his death there were some documents he gave to me and he told me that everything he worked for in his life time is in the document, that it is because of the wealth that his kinsmen poisoned him. When I crosscheck the document, I discovered that my late father deposited ($9,500.000.00) Nine million five hundred thousand US dollars in one of the banks in (London) UK.
I am telling you all this because of my age and also I am a girl, there is little or nothing I could do on my own, if my late fathers relatives find out that my late father left this kind of money in my care I don't know what they might do to me, so I need you to help me contact the bank to transfer the money to your own bank account, and take me along with you. If you do this for me apart from the love I will show to you I will also offer you 20% of the total money for helping me. Please, I request for your trust and understanding because it might sound unbelievable but it is the truth.
Please get back to me as soon as possible.
Sincerely Yours
Miss Rita Samuel.





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