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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: "MRS DONNA PATTERSON" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <agentpatrickhumalo@yahoo.co.za>
Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2013 02:22:01 -0800
Subject: Counter-terrorism Division and Cyber Crime Division

--
Counter-terrorism Division and Cyber Crime Division
Foreign Payment Department
British General Board & Compensation Reserve Team
GRANTED APPROVAL FROM INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND
 
Attention Beneficiary,
 
This is in regards of your overdue funds which have been pending on delivery due to the involvement of bad officials both governmental and non governmental. Records show that you are among one of the individuals and organizations who are yet to receive their overdue payment from overseas which includes those of Lottery/Gambling, Contract and Inheritance.
 
Through our Fraud Monitory Unit we have noticed that you have been transacting with some impostors and fraudsters who have been impersonating the likes of Mrs. Gill Marcus of the Reserve Bank Of South Africa, Mr. Patrick Aziza, Bode Williams, Frank Anderson, Stephen Allen, Emmanuel Nnorom, none officials of Oceanic Bank, Zenith Banks, Kelvin Young of HSBC, Ben of FedEx, Ibrahim Sule, Dr. Usman Shamsuddeen and some impostors claiming to be The Federal Bureau of Investigation who exist in different part of the world e.g. Nigeria, Malaysia, Benin Republic, Ghana, Togo, India, China and many others.
 
The Cyber Crime Division of the FBI, British Interpol and the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission gathered information from the Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) on how some people have lost outrageous sums of money to these impostors. As a result of this, we hereby advise you to stop communication with any one not referred to you by us. We have negotiated with the Federal Ministry of Finance that your payment totaling $5,900,000.00(Five Million Nine Hundred Thousand Dollars) will be released to you via a custom pin based ATM card with a maximum withdrawal limit of $15,000.00 a day which is powered by Visa Card and can be used anywhere in the world where you see a Visa Card Logo on the Automatic Teller Machine (ATM).
 
To redeem your funds, you are hereby advised to contact the ATM Card Center via email for their requirement to proceed and procure your Approval of Payment Warrant and Endorsement of your ATM Release Order on your behalf. Everything else has been taken care of by the Federal Government including taxes, custom paper and clearance duty. The only requirement from you is the $195 for the Administrative Endorsement and Government Clearance Order.
 
 
Contact Patrick Khumalo on the following informations below,
 
Patrick Khumalo (ATM Card Center Director)
Reserve Bank of South Africa
Central Business District,
Cad astral Zone, federal
Johannesburg, South Africa.
ATM Card Center Director Patrick Khumalo
Email: agentpatrickhumalo@yahoo.co.za
Phone Number: +27 (0) 848-631-056
 
Do contact Patrick Khumalo of the ATM Card Center via his contact details above and furnish him with your details as listed below:
 
FULL NAMES: __________________________________
DELIVERY ADDRESS FOR ATM CARD: __________________
SEX: _______________
DATE OF BIRTH: __________________
OCCUPATION: __________________
TELEPHONE NUMBER: _____________________
EMAIL ADDRESS: _____________________
 
On contacting him with your details your file would be updated with the necessary informations, terms & conditions after which the delivery of your ATM card will be effected to your designated home address without any further delay, extra fee asides from the $195 for the Administrative Endorsement and Governmental Clearance Order, Telling you to pay for any delivery or courier charges is all nothing but lies, I repeat the only money you will have to pay is $195 for the Administrative Endorsement and Governmental Clearance Order as imposed by the Compensation Authorities and the Government on your package.
 
MRS DONNA PATTERSON
DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS AND COMPENSATION RELATIONS
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535
PHONE NUMBER: (+1) 206-259-9114
 
Note: Disregard any email you get from any impostors or offices claiming to be in possession of your ATM card, you are hereby advice only to be in contact with Patrick Khumalo of the ATM card center who is the rightful person to deal with in regards to your payment and forward any emails you get from impostors to this office so we could act upon it immediately. Help stop cyber crime.

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