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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: Diana Kouadio <dianakuoadio55@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2014 20:02:20 +0000
Subject: Hi Dearest!

--
Greetings,

I'm Ms. Diana from Ivory Coast, My Father was a gold geologist with
(Merrex Gold Inc) in Burkina Faso. but he was killed in Ivory Coast
civil war on 24th March 2011 including my mother, after the burial of
my parents, my uncles sold my father's properties and left nothing for
me. On a faithful day I discovered a document which my father has
deposited ($7.2M) in a bank in Burkina Faso with my name as the next
of kin.

I traveled to Burkina Faso to withdraw the money, on my arrival the
bank manager told me that my father instructed the bank not to release
the funds to me until I get married or present a trustee who will help
me and invest the money overseas, so, I chose you to be my trustee so
that Bank will transfer the fund into your bank account through my
authority.

I agreed to give you 30% of the $7.2 Million in respect of your
assistance. This is my true life story and I will be glad if you will
be of help, I expect to hear from you soon for more briefing.

Thanks.

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