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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: Craigslist <craigslist@craiglist.org> (may be fake)
Reply-To: no-reply@craiglist.org
Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2011 18:18:35 +0800
Subject: Craigslist: flagged & removed status needs to be re-confirmed !

craigslist > Telephone Account Verification

We need you to provide a valid, working phone number so that we can verify your account.

To help enforce our terms of use, craigslist requires an account, verified by phone, for posting in certain categories. Terms of use violations will be subject to account suspension and blacklisting of the phone number used to verify the account.

After entering your phone number below, you will receive an automated call or text message and an authorization code will be provided to you.

Enter this authorization code on the next page, and your account will be verified.

Problems? Let us know.

craigslist >TO CONFIRM YOUR ACCOUNT > CLICK HERE

Anti-fraud resources: