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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: Gareth & Catherine Bull <garkatb1@office642.onmicrosoft.com>
Reply-To: <grthkb@live.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2013 14:41:14 +0530
Subject: Official Notice


Dear Sir/Madam, Compliments of the day to you and your family, hope this ma=
il finds you in good spirit. My wife and I won the Euro Millions Lottery of=
41 Million British Pounds and we have decided to donate 700,000.00 GBP (Se=
ven Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds) each to 4 individuals worldwide =
as part of our own charity project. To verify please see our interview by v=
isiting the web page below: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2091124=
/EuroMillions-winners-Gareth-Catherine-Bull-scoop-41MILLION-lotto-jackpot.h=
tml Your email address was among the emails which were submitted to us by t=
he Google, Inc as a web user; if you have received our email please, kindly=
send us the below details so that we can transfer your 700,000.00 GBP (Sev=
en Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds) in your name or direct our bank t=
o effect the transfer of the funds to your operational bank account in your=
country, congratulations. If you have received this email then you are one=
of the lucky recipients, get back to us with your details so that we can f=
orward it to the payout bank who will transfer your own part of the donatio=
n to you. For the purpose of confidentiality and to claim your prize, reply=
to my Attorney via this email : grthkb@live.com Yours Sincerely, Richard D=
ons (ESQ) & Ass. Presiding Attorney on Behalf of Gareth & Catherine Bull Ch=
arity Email: grthkb@live.com

Anti-fraud resources: