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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: "RAY BALL." (may be fake)
Reply-To: <rball2000@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:33:50 -0700
Subject: I NEED YOUR ANSWER.

Good day,

My name is Mr. Ray Ball, an External Auditor working with a Prime Bank here in the Belize central America. during our last auditing for the bank, I discovered a dormant account. From my investigation, the owner of the said account, a foreigner by name Mr. Jeffry Picower who died since October 25th 2009 for details visit http://rt.com/usa/news/billionaire-death-madoff-scandal/
After all this years, no one has come up with a letter of administration to lay claims for the funds hence myself and my insider in the bank have decided to move the funds to overseas with the help of a foreigner who will stand as the beneficiary to the late man in order to move the funds.
Upon the successful transfer of the funds to your account, we will discuss the sharing formular and areas of investment in your country. If you are interested, kindly get back to me as soon as possible so I can advice you on how to proceed for the successful transfer of the Funds into your account.

Best Regards,

Mr. Ray Ball.

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