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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: "Alfonso Williams" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <linfon.william@net-c.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2014 17:43:14 +0100
Subject: Re: Resp sr

Hello dearest

Please permit our introduction. I am Alfonso Williams and my sister name is Linda. I am 19 years old while my little sister is 15 years old. We are from Republic of Sierra Leone. I found your contact address through my late father's international business directory and I decided to contact you to seek your kind assistance in helping us to relocate to your country for further studies and for investment of the money we inherited from our late father. We lost our parents few months ago in a ghastly motor accident. My mother died instantly when the accident happened but my father sustained a very severe injury which resulted to his untimely death four days after he was rushed down to a private hospital. May there soul rest in perfect peace. My late father spent his whole life in the building and construction industry as an engineer. He left behind for me and my little sister eight million three hundred thousand dollars which according to him he realized from the execution of some governm
ent contracts that was aw

Now i am writing to seek your kind help and advice if it will be possible for you to assist us achieve our dream of relocating to your peaceful country for investment of the money and studies. We want to finally relocate to your country with this money so that we can invest it properly and further our education. We are now in Ivory Coast and have succeeded in locating the bank where my late father deposited the money and have identified ourselves properly and also informed them about the sad fate my family had suffered. The bank said that my late father deposited the money in their bank escrow suspense account for safe keep. We will need your help in the following ways, to help us stand as our guardian overseas and as our late father's overseas business partner over this money so that the bank can release and transfer the money to your bank account and also bring us over to your country to further our college education and then make arrangement for a good business investment which yo
u will invest with the mo

It is true that we do not know you in person but i pray and hope that you have it in your heart to assist us with all sincerity and honesty. You will guild us and invest the money and manage the investment until we are capable. Please if you can help us, i will want you to send your contact information that the bank can use to contact you so that i can make your name available to the bank as our guardian overseas that will receive the money on our behalf. We are willing to give you any amount which you will wish to have after receiving the money in your safe bank account. Thank you and May God bless you and your family as you help us achieve our dream of relocating to your country to start a new life and further our education under your guardianship.

Sincerely
Alfonso and Linda

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