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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: "Dennis Robert" <headoffiice@gmail.com>
Reply-To: headoffice1@cantv.net
Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2011 16:40:42 -0000
Subject: hello!




170 Main Street,
Johannesburg,
Tel:
Fax:


Please my good friend,

I am the General Audit Manager, Accounts Department in our bank. I have
the opportunity of transferring the sum of (20 million USD). This fund
originally belonged to one of our bank Customer who died in the year 2002.
The money will be transferred in bits.

My request for a foreigner to stand as next of kin in this business is
because of the fact that the customer is a foreigner. Based on the fact
that this is a deal, I propose that 50% of this fund go to you, while 50%
will go to me. I will give you more detail of the transfer process as soon
as you show your interest in this transaction.

Thanks,

Denis Roberts



Anti-fraud resources: