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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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: <s.edson56@yahoo.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2013 18:06:35 +0700
Subject: Hope for the Needy

Dearest Beloved

With Due Respect And Humanity, Let me first of all inform you, I got your email address from a mail Directory and decided to mail you for a permission to go ahead. I am Mrs.Sarah Edson from Switzerland. I am married to Mr. William Edson who worked with a construction company in Asia for twenty Years before he died in the tsunami disasters, we were married but without Any children. I am now suffering from long time breast Cancer and Cancer of the lungs, from all indication my condition is really deterioration and it is quite obvious that i won't live more than 2 months according to my doctor, this is because the cancer stage has gotten to a very bad stage Since his death I decided not to re-marry. I deposited the sum of four million five hundred thousand United States dollars ($ 4.5million) with a bank in Cambodia. And now i am willing to donate this sum of $ 4.5million to the less privileged and to contribute to development of church in Africa, America, Asia, and Europoe. My!
late husband was a very wealthy a

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