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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: Pierre Sanchez <nautipete@yahoo.com>
Reply-To: Pierre Sanchez <nautlpete@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2013 09:52:19 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Urgent Trip


How are you doing? This has had to come in a hurry and it has left us in a devastating state. My family and I had a visit to UK some days back for a short vacation, unfortunately we were robbed at the park of the hotel where we stayed. All cash, credit cards and cell phones were stolen, it was so traumatic. Thank God we have our life and passports saved, we've been to the embassy but they are not 100% helpful. We also have limited means of getting out of here, as I have cancelled my cards, so I won’t get a new card till I get back home.


I really need your support & assistance as our flight leaves tomorrow, but we're having problems checking out of the hotel, as we need to sort out some outstanding bills. Please I'm going to need some sort of loan from you to sort out the bills and also take a cab to the airport. Let me know what you can do.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.
 
Thanks,
Pierre Sanchez

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