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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: "A. A Farouk" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <abdul.a.farouk@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 17:51:41 +0100
Subject: very urgent

Hello Friend,
Greetings to you and your family, I know this may appear to you as a surprise. I found your contact address in an address journal, and then decided to take a chance to contact you in confidence with the hope that you will be honest and trustworthy to work with.
My name is Abdul Ahmed Farouk, a Syrian soldier, fighting against the Rebels (Revolutionary forces) in Syria, I seek your full assistance and co-operation to move to you the sum of $11.875, 000 (eleven million eight hundred and seventy five thousand US dollars only) on Trust.
We got this money during military raids in Homs and Qusair city, Syria, respectively. Monies in various currencies were discovered in barrels in the Rebels camps. My crew-members and I, decided to split these currencies, disclose some to the Government and then share the rest amongst ourselves. After the sharing, then to sneak past the war zone with the consignment becomes a big challenge, as we must be very cautious to avoid being caught as deserters and be court-martialled for cowardice and all that.
In view of this, we have carefully packaged the money, and have made contact with a friend who is working with the Air-force, under the UNITED NATIONS here in Syria. I told him that the luggage belongs to one of the Red Cross Doctors that died during military raids, but before he gave up he pleaded to me to make sure the luggage gets to his family.
The Air-force friend will assist us to secretly move the consignment out of this war zone to where he will hand it over to an experience and trusted diplomat who has solid International diplomatic contacts, to move any luggage no matter the contents, through secret diplomatic routs to Europe, America or Asia. He will for now conceal and deposit the luggage in one of the United Nations SECRET SECURITY VAULT for safe keeping.
My approach to your person is based on my conviction that you could be sufficiently trusted with considerable huge sum of money. If you accept to assist and assure me of your honesty and trustworthiness, I will then put your name forward as the owner and use you to bring out the consignment and deliver to you for us to shear 60-40. What about that?
For stronger security reason, all communications would be via my email address: abdul.a.farouk@aol.com, our communications are closely monitored. So, enclose your telephone numbers to enable me call you from anywhere through a payphone at my free times.
The zeal in some of us in the Syrian army in this war has faded because of wanton aggression and all kinds of atrocities been perpetrated by both sides in the name of Syria war. So as soon as this transaction is accomplished, we would like to go back home to join our respective families and then seek avenues for significant private investment overseas to escape the economic hardship that has already befallen the country.
I await your urgent response ASAP to my private email Address: abdul.a.farouk@aol.com
Regards,
A. A. Farouk

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