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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: "HENRY G SMITH" <henrygsmith@lotto.org>
Reply-To: gregorysmith60@mail.mn
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 04:10:52 -0400
Subject: UNCLAIMED LOTTERY WINNINGS

Dear Friend,

My name is Henry G Smith, I work with a lottery company here in the United States.

I am contacting you because we have loads of unclaimed lottery winnings in my company.

If you have a good business plan, we can re-profile the unclaimed lottery winning funds
or share the funds in the following ratio: 50% for me, 50% for you out rightly.

Please reply me by email for now to give me your consent, and then I can provide my
personal telephone number to establish communication with you.


I expect your swift response.
Regards,
Henry G Smith.

Anti-fraud resources: