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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: "Fred Sawyer" <fred.sawyer@superposta.com>
Reply-To: fredsawyer@superposter.com
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 17:22:37 +0200
Subject: Contact me for details ASAP...


Hello,
Greetings to you, My name is Mr Fred Sawyer, I am a Banker by profession. =
Please I want you to read this message very carefully and get back to me wi=
th your full support. On the May, 2008 our foreign customer died in a deadl=
y earthquake in China, and before his sudden death he made a fixed deposit =
amount of 8,400,000:00USD in our Bank.=20
Since then I have made several attempts to locate any of his extended rela=
tives to no avail. This amount has been so long in our bank without any cla=
im and I have all the information about the deposit as the deceased account=
officer.=20
Now I am contacting you for assistance in repatriating this huge amount of=
USD$8.4 Million. I need you to stand as the next of kin and claim this amo=
unt from the bank than allowing the money to be confiscated or declared as =
unclaimed fund to the=20
Government account then 30% of this amount will be shared among the bank d=
irectors while 70% will be transferred to the Government account but you an=
d me can share this money 50% each Once I receive your positive answer, I s=
hall give you every detail concerning this business and how we are going to=
get it done. Please kindly respond back directly to my private email addre=
ss as below: (fredsawyer[at]hotmail.com) for more details and provide me wi=
th your email address and mobile number. I look forward to hear from you AS=
AP.=20
Best Regards,=20
Mr. Fred Sawyer.=20



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