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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: "Federal Bureau of Investigation" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <intnlopszbnkngplc@yahoo.com.ph>
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2014 10:35:14 +1000
Subject: FBI/FILE14062014

FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
FBI HEADQUARTERS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.
J. EDGAR HOOVER BUILDING
935 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535-0001
http://www.fbi.gov
Sir,
This is the International Financial Watch Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI Washington) United States of America and we are mandated to monitor financial transactions around the globe in order to combat financial and internet fraud world wide. Our monitoring device picked up several signal transactions on your server and since then we have been monitoring all your financial/internet transactions and we have discovered that you have been into series of transactions.
 
>From our investigations, you have been involved in a series of transaction worth of millions of dollars. Importantly, we discovered that you have an outstanding transaction worth US$10,500,000.00 which is either inheritance, lottery or contract payment which has been approved for payment but is yet to be paid to you.
We are working with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Nigerian Government and the United Nations (UN) to ensure that you receive your payment. We thus, officially inform you that we have verified your contract/Lottery/ inheritance payment file after close monitoring and found out why you have not received the payment, both on your part and on the part of your debtors.
 
Our discussion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), United Nations (UN) and the Nigerian Government agreed that the US$10.5M should be paid to you through the use of an Electronic ATM Card System. The ATM card will be processed by the Zenith Bank Nig. Plc. YOU CAN ALSO CHOSE OTHER PAYMENT METHODS LIKE WIRE TRANSFER.
You are to forward the following details to Mr. Russell Nilson of the Zenith Bank Nig. Plc for immediate processing of your payment through the e-mail address:  intnlopszbnkngplc@yahoo.com.ph 
The details to be forwarded to the bank are:
(1)Your Full Name:
(2) Address:
(3)City:
(4)State:
(5) Zip code:
(8) Direct Telephone Number:
(9) Age:
(10) Sex
(11) Occupation:
(12)Confidential E-mail address:
We have mandated the Zenith Bank Nig. Plc to process your payment within 48 hours of receiving your details which means that you must notify us once you contact the bank to enable us follow up with them to ensure that your payment is promptly processed.
You are to get back to us if you need further clarification and do feel free to inform us of your past effort to claim the funds and if there has been any monetary involvement from you.
 
To who and how much did you spend without results as this will enable us to prosecute those involved.
Faithfully Yours,
CHAD PALTROW
Direct E-mail: fbi.ifwatch@outlook.com
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI Washington)
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Anti-fraud resources: