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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: "Johnson Gary" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <johnson_gary61@imail.com>
Date: Thu, 3 May 2012 10:36:53 -0400
Subject: MY LAST WISH

Dear Friend,
 
My names are Johnson Gary.I am British living in Dubai (united Arab emirate). I am a merchant and owned two businesses in Dubai. I am married with two children. my wife and two children died in a car accident six years ago. Before this happened my business and concern for making money was all I lived for. I never really cared about other values in life.But since the loss of my family, i have found a new desire to assist helpless families.
I have been helping orphans in orphanage/ motherless homes. i have donated some money to orphans in  Sudan, south Africa, Cameroon, Brazil, Spain, Austria, Germany and some Asian countries.Before I became ill, I kept some money, fifteen and a half million dollars $15.5million) to be precise in a long term deposit account in a security company in Europe. Presently, I am in a hospital. my doctors told me i have esophageal cancer that I have a few months to live. it is my last wish to see this money distributed to charity organizations. Because so much of my wealth has been plundered by relatives and friends since my illness, I  cannot live with the agony of entrusting this huge responsibility to any of  them.
Please, I beg you in the name of God to help me collect the deposit from the security company in Europe and distribute it amongst charity  organizations. Use your judgment to distribute the money and keep 20% of it  to yourself. Feel free to reimburse yourself when you have the money for any cost you incur during the process of collecting and distributing the money to charity organizations. May the good Lord bless you and your family?
As soon as you are ready to do this for me i will furnish you with the contact address of the security company in Europe where you are going to make the claim of the funds, i will not disclose that for now just for security
reasons.
I await your urgent response.
Sincerely,
Johnson Gary

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