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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: "BARRISTER JAMES SMITH" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <barristerjamessmith1315@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 26 Mar 2011 08:16:00 -0700
Subject: GET BACK FOR MORE DETAILS

Attention,

Please kindly accept my apology for sending unsolicited mail to you. I believe you are a highly respected personality, considering the fact that I sourced your profile from a human resource profile database in your country. Though, I do not know to what extent you are familiar with events.

I am Barrister James Smith (ESQ),I have a vital information about an unclaimed fund under my custody. Please get back to me with your complete data if interested, as i shall provide to you all necessary claim documents of this fund. Please feel free to contact me for more details, you can reach me on my direct phone number at 234-8065785365, Email reply to barristerjamessmith1315@gmail.com
Yours sincerely,

Barr. James Smith (ESQ),

For: Principal Attorney

Anti-fraud resources: