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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: MEKALA VIJAYKUMAR SAMUEL <kvijay_0219@yahoo.co.jp>
Reply-To: <kvijay_m100@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 09:04:11 -0400
Subject: KINDLY TREAT AS URGENT.

Dear Sir,
 
Kindly treat as urgent so we would know whether to solicit for another partner or not.
 
My name is MR. MEKALA VIJAYKUMAR SAMUEL from India. I am a guru in Information Technology and am now working on a project with an ex top management staff of the Union Bank of Switzerland (aka the UBS AG), Zurich. I am contacting you to see if you could partner with us in some lucrative Electronic Transfer deals which could fetch us US$10m every month, and this deal could go on for a very long time without being detected. Your duty is just to provide an account for the receipt of each transfer at an agreed percentage, and reinvest our part on real Estate in your country on our behalf. TRUST ME, THERE IS NO RISK INVOLVED.
For more details, kindly get back to me.
 
Regards,
MEKALA VIJAYKUMAR SAMUEL
 

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