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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: johnson <helenjohnson75@rediffmail.com>
Reply-To: helenhohnsonn4464@yahoo.com
Date: Thu, 4 Jul 2013 11:14:08 +0100 (BST)
Subject: Urgent respond




Hello Dear,



I am Miss.Helen johnson, 24 years old, a Sociology student,from Guinea Bissau.My father of blessed memory by name late Mr. Paul johnson who was the former deputy minister of national security under the leadership of president Kumba Yalla who is now facing judgement at the international court of justice for war crime and abusing human rights.I am constrained to contact you because of the maltreatment am receiving from my step mother.She planned to take away all my fathers treasury and assets from me since the unexpected death of my Father.Meanwhile,I wanted to travell to Europe but she hid my international passport and other valuable travelling documents,luckily she couldn't discover where I kept my fathers file.



I am now writing you from Ivory Coast where I escaped to through road, and now seeking hiding in a private charity organization under Catholic church in Ivory Coast here in abidjan.

So I am now in search of an honest and reliable person who will help to relocate me in any of the western or any other place in the world, for a better life and to continue my studies, I have chosen to contact you after getting your email through a database,

and I believe you are a reliable person who will not let me down or betray my trust, I know you may wonder why I am telling you about all this, even without seeing or knowing you fully well, really something in me tells me that you are a good person and I guess I am not wrong.



Briefly, I will like to disclose little more about myself to you and see if you can help me to relocate to your country so as to continue with my studies and have a new life, and please this is a little secret and I plead with you to keep it to yourself alone until everything is properly arranged and executed, then I will come over to join you in your country. I have the sum of $5.7Million as an inheritance from my late father which I will like to invest in your country with your help, the reason why I need your help is based on the instruction my late father gave to the bank to release the fund to me at the age of 24 and through a foreigner who can help me to invest the fund wisely,



I can not be able to make this claim because of my refugee status. This fund is deposited in my late father's bank account with one of the banks here in Ivory coast and I am going to give you all the details / contact because I want the money to be transferred to your account before I come over to join you in your country, I need your urgent answer of your ability to handle this for me so that I will tell you the next step because I want to leave this refugee camp as soon as possible, life here is to me a hell, no love, no affection and no amenities, more importantly, I love my studies and here nothing is happening and people here are not friendly,I am really suffering in this place, it is too painful, but I hope with your help to transferring the fund in your account,I will have a better life to live so kindly let me know your readiness to help me and I promise to always be nice and faithful to you I will send to you a copy of my photo as soon I receive
your positive respond .



Finally i will offer you 20 percentage of the total fund by helping me to retrieve it.

Thanks and God bless you.



Yours Sincerely,

Helen johnson

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