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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: Petra Abou Abou <petraabouabou@yahoo.fr>
Reply-To: petrabou35@yahoo.com
Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2012 08:56:21 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Ol=E1_querida=2C?=



Olá querida,
 
Complemento do dia para você, por favor, perdoe-me se eu interferir em sua privacidade, meu nome é Miss Petra Abou, Idade 24, altura 5 pés 11 polegadas, peso 61, eu sou a única filha do falecido Mr.Sylvestre Abou de Abidjan, Costa do Marfim, na África ocidental, o meu pai era um magnata dos negócios e um político. Eu observei você é uma personalidade importante antes que eu fiz a minha mente para contatá-lo. Por favor, eu gostaria de saber mais sobre você porque eu tenho comigo alguns fundos que eu gostaria de investir em um bom negócio lá no seu país. Eu gostaria que você pudesse ser honesto para mim para que eu possa ir para esse investimento com você ao meu ego e eu também precisa de seus bons conselhos.
 
Primeiro de tudo, eu gostaria de saber o que você faz para viver, lembre-se que você me chamou a atenção foi por isso que em contato com você em primeiro lugar. Vamos nos conhecer mais como nos comunicamos bem.
 
Obrigado pela sua compreensão, na esperança de ouvir de você logo.
 
Do meu coração,
Senhorita Petra Abou,

Hello dear,
 
Complement of the day to you, please pardon me if i interfere into your privacy, my name is Miss Petra Abou, Age 24, height 5 ft 11 inches, weight 61, i am the only daughter of Late Mr.Sylvestre Abou   from ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast in west Africa, my father was a business tycoon and a politician. I observed you are an important personality before i made up my mind to contact you. Please i will like to know more about you because i have with me some funds which i will like to invest in a good business over there in your country. I wish you could be honest to me so that i can go into this investment with you by my self and i will also need your good advices.
 
First of all, I will like to know what you do for a living; remember you caught my attention that was why i contacted you in the first place. We will know ourselves more as we communicate along.
 
Thanks for your understanding, hoping to hear from you soon.
 
>From my heart,
Miss Petra Abou,













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