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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: "Robert S. Mueller III" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <antifrauddeptfbi@live.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 17:41:55 +0100
Subject: OFFICIAL LETTER FROM FBI DATED: 03/27/12

OFFICIAL LETTER FROM FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI) EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ROBERT MUELLER III FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION WASHINGTON DC. FBI SEEKING TO WIRETAP INTERNET.
The federal bureau of investigation (FBI).Through our intelligence monitoring network has discovered that the transaction that the bank contacted you previously was legal.Recently the fund has been legally approved to be paid via APEX BANK, so we the federal bureau of investigation (FBI) Washington Dc, in conjunction with the United Nations (UN) financial department have investigated through our monitoring network that your transaction with the APEX BANK is legal and all beneficiary can claim there fund due to the recent meeting held in Washington on 30 December 2011.
You have the legitimate right to complete your transaction to claim your US$36.700,000.00 (Thirty Six Million Seven Hundred Thousands United States dollars.We the federal bureau of investigation decided to contact the APEX BANK in charge for them to give us their procedures on how to send this money to you without any further complain or delay. We just got an information from the APEX BANK that your US$36.7,M is ready to be wired to your bank account without any further delay.
You are hereby required and advice to contact the APEX BANK Secretary Mr. Kingsley Agwor (kingsleyagwor450@live.com) with your full contact details so that they can proceed in getting your funds to you. It might interest you  to know that we are here to protect you from any problem till you receive your funds, you can as well get in touch with us through the above e-mail address and the helpline desk.
Looking forward to hear from you as soon as you receive this message.
Best Regards,
Robert Swan Mueller
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J.Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C
20535-0001, USA
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/executives/director

Anti-fraud resources: