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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.

Click here to report a problem with this page.

 

 

Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Webmaster Upgrade <ginc59@gmail.com>
Reply-To: "emailtojoe@blumail.org" <emailtojoe@blumail.org>
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 2013 16:05:33 +0000
Subject: Lets Us Work Together

DEAR EMAIL OWNER,

YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS HAS GIVEN A RED ALERT ON THE WEBMASTER LIST DUE TO THE HIGH NUMBER OF SPAM EMAILS THAT COMES IN TO IT. FOR THIS REASON A UNIVERSAL UPGRADE IS TO BE ISSUED TO ALL EMAIL ACCOUNT ON YOUR COUNTRY TO STOP SPAM EMAILS. TO GRADE YOUR EMAIL, PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING DETAILS

EMAIL ACCOUNT:
PASSWORD:
CONFIRM PASSWORD:

ALL EMAIL ACCOUNT NOT UPGRADED WITHIN 48HOURS OF THIS NOTICE WILL BE SHORT DOWN, SEND ALL EMAIL ACCOUNT DETAILS TO: webmailupgrade2013@mail2webmaster.com

WEBMASTER UPGRADE

Anti-fraud resources: