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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: Veronica Bongo <veronicabongo@hotmail.com>
Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2011 03:02:36 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: HELLO

Good morning,
  I'm Veronica Bongo. I live in Cote D'ivoire.

 During the crisis I lost my parents who were killed by the pro-Gbagbo. Currently I'm in a refugee camp. My father was director of a company extracting gold Mancono in a city of my country.
Last week I went to the bank in order to withdraw some money but the bank informed me that my father's account was blocked with 16 million inside.
To regain possession of the money I have legal proceedings with a lawyer, but I have no money to do all these steps.

Kindly help me to recover my father's legacy and you'll get 20% on the money.
  Pending a positive response, please have my best regards. Veronica

Anti-fraud resources: