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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: "UDO WILLY" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <udo_willy@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2013 06:16:32 -0700
Subject: PLEASE CAN I TRUST YOU

Dear Friend,I write to you as a matter of uttermost urgency in respect of a business transaction which I trust will be of interest to you.It pertains certain accounts which in the wake of the September 11 attacks were "MARKED" by the Counter-terrorism unit of the FBI, these accounts are belonging to key Arab businessmen and influential players in the middle-east,these accounts  have been a subject of investigation and has since been cleared by the FBI and I have been entrusted with the duty of returning these account to the rightful owners but unfortunately a lot of these people are no where to be found.If interested, my proposal is for you to be the sole beneficiary of  these funds which is running into $126,000,000 USD. This partnership is to be on 50%-50%basis. Get back to me immediately if you are interested in partnering with me.
Yours faithfully,
Dr willy

Anti-fraud resources: