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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: "Mrs. kathrine Hills" <bh38@w53vk06km.homepage.t-online.de>
Reply-To: <mrskathrinehills03@skymail.mn>
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2011 07:25:42 +0100
Subject: My Dear Friend

My, Dear Friend
I am Mrs kathrine Hills from Netherlands,I am 58 years old,i am Deaf suffering from a long time cancer of the breast,from all indication my conditions is really deteriorating and it is quite obvious that i can't work or do any stressful thing, according to my doctors they have advised me that i may not live for the next two months,this is because the cancer stage has gotten to a very bad stage. I was brought up from a motherless babies home was married to my late husband for twenty years without a child ,My Husband (Roberto Hills) died in a fatal motor accident Before his death we were true Christians.    Since his death I decided not to re-marry,I sold all my inherited belongings and deposited all the sum of $8.6million dollars with Barclays Bank London Uk .Presently, this money is still with them and the management just wrote me as the true owner to come forward to receive the money for keeping it so long will attract demurage fees as the fees paid by me has expired
Presently, I'm with my laptop in a hospital in Frankfurt Germany where I have been undergoing treatment for my sickness I have since lost my ability to talk and my doctors have told me that I have only a 2 months to live
It is my last wish to see that this money is invested/donated to any organisation/buisness of your choice and distributed each year among the charity organization,E.g the poor homes,the motherless babies home where i came from,the deaf homes,and churces etc .All i seek for is a God fearing person like you ,who will carry out my last wishes and before i emailed you today i prayed and the holy spirit gave me the confidence to send you this email.I took this decision, before i rest in peace because my time will soon be up
Waiting for your reply
Yours in Christ
Mrs. kathrine Hills

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