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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: stanley susan <stanleysusan1@outlook.com>
Reply-To: <stanley_susan001@yahoo.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 07:53:48 +0000
Subject: Hope you are doing fine


Dear,I and my sister want to know you... My name is Stanley and my younger sister Susan. We are from a country called Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) here in West Africa. We lost our both parents and our little brother during political crisis in our country, they were assassinated by the rebels. I am 16 years old and my younger sister is 12 years old. We were schooling in Ghana when our parents and little brother were killed during the political crisis. We lost everything and we don't know anybody in Ivory Coast because we stay in Ghana, we have gone to the police to declare ourselves to see if anybody that relates to our parents will come for us but nobody came for us up till this moment, we live in the refugee camp. Today we decided to search on the internet for a trustworthy person that can assist us to further our education. Meanwhile our late father was a Gold merchant / Cocoa, Café exporter before he died and our mummy was a house wife. The only thing that is left for us is a Trunk Box our parents deposited in a security company here in Ivory Coast which contains (US$500,000) Five Hundred Thousand U.S Dollars and Gold bars worth of $12.7 Million U.S Dollars according to what its written in the letter sent to us by our late father before the political crisis started, including the documents that prove the deposit of the Trunk Box to the Security Company for safe keeping. We have tried to discuss with that security company for the release of our late father's Trunk Box that is under their custody but they said they cannot release it to us because of our age so they advised us to look for our late father's lawyer or any of our father’s foreign business partners that can receive the Trunk Box on our behalf. We don't know how and where to locate our late father's lawyer but as we came across your email on the internet we decided to take the risk to write you for help despite we don't know you but it's better we take risks to hand over this Trunk Box to you than to die in starvation without taking this risk to give out the information that will lead to the release of this Trunk Box. We believe if you receive it God will touch your heart not to abandon us in suffering. If you can help us to get this Trunk Box from this security company and help us invest that money in a good business in your country then from their be taking care of us and our education until we are matured enough to handle things by ourselves, we will be very happy and will take you as our parent forever. Please we want you to give us a response that will make us to have hope of good living again. You can read the full details of the crisis from CNN new here http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/04/01/ivory.coast.unrest/
Yours Sincerely,Stanley & Susan

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