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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: "Mrs. Lucy Farouk" <lucy.farouk@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: "Mrs. Lucy Farouk" <lucyfarouk@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 16 Jul 2013 09:47:26 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Dear trusted one




 
Dear trusted one,

I sent this mail hoping that it reaches you in good health because I myself am in a very critical health condition in which I go to bed every night knowing I may not be alive to see the next day. I am Mrs Lucy Farouk from Libya but I'm contacting you from a hospital bed where I wrote this mail in tears hoping to let you know of my ordeal. My husband who until his death in October 2005 was a secret agent to the now late president Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. We were married for 15 years without a child due to my fibroid problem. My husband died in his office in Burkina Faso as a result of heart attack and I made a decision to live out the rest of my life as his widow.

Very shortly before my husband’s death, he made a deposit of ($11) Million Dollars. He deposited the money in his name as proceeds from an oil contract, but the fund was actually, an initial payment for a secret arm deal he was brokering for his then master Gaddafi and the government of North Korea. Now with the deaths of my husband and that of President Muammar Gaddafi during the crisis in Libya, I'm now the only one who knows of this particular fund and presently I'm in this hospital bed dying of cancer since the doctor has made it clear that I'm no longer responding to medications, indicating that I will not be living much longer, but I will rather die in this hospital than go home and face more insults and humiliation from my husband relatives who took away all my money and jewels and left me uncared-for just because I’m an orphan.

Having considered my position, I have decided to use you to carry out my plan. I will guide you to receive the ($11) Million Dollars from the bank in Burkina Faso and you will take 30% of it for yourself and your family while you will use the other 70% and build an orphanage home for the motherless children in your location or anywhere of your choice. This is because I'm an orphan and does not have any relative. This has been my wish before this sickness came between my plans. Please you must follow this directive or I will look for another person. The only reason I will not entrust the fund and project to someone around here is because I'm making it a top secret so that the news doesn’t get to my husband relatives who will not allow the fund to be used for humanitarian work but will quickly confiscate the money and have it shared amongst them.

However, if you are not capable of handling this task or you do not have confidence in this message, please kindly delete it and accept my sincere apology for contacting you in this manner, but if you have confidence in it and can handle the task then kindly indicate by responding.

Thanks and be Blessed.

Mrs. Lucy Farouk.

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