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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: micpatt1975@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 20:02:51 +0200
Subject:

by HZDFYD.com MailServer with ESMTP by
mail.xsedu.zj.cn Thu, 16 Jun 2011 17:53:57 GMT
Reply-To: <unitednationredcross@diplomats.com>
From: "Michael Pattorn"<micpatt1975@gmail.com>
Subject: Re
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:53:46 +0200
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset="Windows-1251"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Priority: 3
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2600.0000
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2600.0000

Hi,

My name is Michael Patton. I work with the American Red cross. I am head of the Contingency

Operating Base Speicher, Iraq. With a desperate need for assistance, I have summed up

courage to contact you. I am seeking your kind assistance to move the sum of $4.2million

(Four Million Two hundred thousand United States Dollars) to you as far as I can be assured

that the money will be used for charity and humanitarian purposes as strictly requested by

the owner.

Source of money: The money belonged to Sgt. Lonnie C. Allen Jr., 26, of Bellevue, Nebraska,

U.S., died May 18, 2006 in Baghdad, Iraq, of wounds suffered from an explosion. He was

assigned to the Army 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain

Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y. This money was part of his share from the money

they discovered in barrels at a farmhouse near one of Saddam's old palaces in Tikrit, Iraq

during a rescue operation. He was hoping to move the money out of Iraq before he died. I was

attending to him when he confided in me and told me about the money. His last wish was that

I should help him make arrangement to move the money out of Iraq and then contact you to

receive it so that you can use it to help the less privileged and other charitable

activities that will uplift and profit humanity and mankind. You can go to this web link to

read about events that took place then via this site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm

With the help of a British contact working here, whose office enjoys immunity, I was able to

get the package out of Iraq to the United Kingdom where it is quite safe. Now the British

contact does not know the real contents of the package. She believes that they are personal

valued properties of the late Sgt. Lonnie C. Allen Jr. who trusted me to hand over the

package to his family before he died. Now I have just found a very secured way of delivering

this package to you without any problems. Now that I have agreed to do this with you, I

will want you to keep it highly confidential between both of us and I have decided to split

the money this way, 50% goes to the charity organization and less privilege, 20% for you,

20% for me while 10% have been mapped out for expenses incurred during the process of

delivery of the consignment to you. I will discuss this with you when I receive your

response to this mail assuring me of your willingness and capability
to handle this safely and disburse the money as instructed by the late Sgt. Lonnie C. Allen

Jr.

Please I want you to keep this matter absolutely confidential as any leakage of this

information will be too bad for those of us serving in Iraq. I do not know how long we will

still be here in Iraq, but whatever happens, I will be in constant touch with you. Remain

blessed as I await your urgent response to this mail. Please do send your response to my

safe email account: (unitednationredcross@diplomats.com)

Michael Patton.

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