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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: Stephanie cowan <stephaniecowan022@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: stephanie_cowan022@yahoo.co.jp
Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2011 09:24:16 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: Dearest One,




From Miss Stehpanie Cowan

Dearest One,



How are you doing today? Hope fine. I am Miss Stehpanie Cowan,the only daughter of my late parents Mr and Mrs. Patrick Cowan, I need your help to retrived the consignment fund that my late Father deposited with a security company here in Abidjan,Cote dvoire in West Africa and to transfer the consignment fund my late father left for me in the security company before he died.



I want to invest the money in your country and continue my studies. The money is ($6,Million USD) and i will give you 30% of the Total money for your help.



Once I get your mail with fully assurancse to help me I will send you my pictures together with my identity, and I am prepared to offer you a reasonable amount of the total money for your time spent in the course of the transfer. Please consider this and get back to me as soon as possible. I wait for your immediate response for more details.



Thanks and God bless you.



Kind Regards,

Miss Stehpanie Cowan.

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