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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: "Mrs. Catherine Coffman" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <mrs.catherinecoffman@hotmail.co.uk>
Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2011 09:53:07 +0800
Subject: God Bless You

Beloved,
I pray you find peace with this. I'm Mrs Catherine Coffman from Scotland, wife to late Dr. Hillary C.
Coffman an Ex-Chairman of T.O.C. London who died in a ghastly motor accident on his way to a board
meeting. We were married with no child and I decided not to remarry since I'm now old. When my
husband was alive, he deposited $16, 500, 000.00 with a bank here in Asia which he intended to use
for a charity project. And the bank wrote me a week ago to come and claim this money as the next of
kin or give an authority letter to someone who can do it for me. I can't do this myself because I am
presently in a hospital where I've been taking treatment for cancer of the lungs for the past four
years. My doctors have told me that I have only but few weeks to live that is why I decided to use
this fund for charity work. I have no family who can do this for me, so I decided to look for a
sincere person or family who can use 80% of the fund to run the charity. As soon as you respond, I
will write an authority letter to the bank to release the fund to you. I want you to promise me that
you will use this fund exactly as I have said.
I await your urgent reply.
Mrs Catherine Coffman

Anti-fraud resources: