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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: "Capt. John Craig {US ARMY}" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <cptjohncraigsmiles1@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2014 17:38:45 -0700
Subject: RE: Us Mil Mail --- could you be trusted

Hello,My name is Captain John Craig , A United States Army officer. Based on the United States legislative and
executive decision to pull our complete troop out of here in 2 months time from now I have decided to contact
you for this business opportunity,relationship and considerable proposition. I want to inform you that I have in
my possession 2 valuable boxes which I want to ship to you. CHECK OUT THE NEWS here for
more info: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988455.stm Could you be trusted?
If you can please contact me urgently on my private email cptjohncraigsmiles1@yahoo.co.jp .

If you can't please delete this mail.

Thank You
CPT John Craig

Anti-fraud resources: