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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: (sent from abused email account)
Reply-To: westernunionpayout@qq.com
Date: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 18:24:18 +0800
Subject: =?UTF-8?Q?PAYMENT_NOTICE=E2=80=8F?=

I write to inform you that we have already sent you
$5000.00 US Dollars through Western union as we have
been given the mandate to transfer your full compensation
payment of $1.800,000.00 US Dollars via western union
by the Nigeria Government and United Nation for this year 2014.

The money is available for pick up which was deposited
for transfer to you. The money is available
for pick up by receiver(you) but when you track it, it
will display ERROR due to the fact that it has been
deactivated from our head office for security reason
because it has stayed too long on air as we have been trying
to reach you on the phone for some days now but it was
not reachable. Therefore you can not cash it out in any
western union office due to its restriction from our head
office,which was a security measure because the money has
been in the air for three days now and maybe in danger
hence the mtcn has to be reactivated to enable you cash out
the money in any western union office in your area, the
reactivation of the MTCN will cost you a token of $85,
once this is paid, our head office will release the fund on
hold to enable you cash it. To confirm this, open this link
(https://wumt.westernunion.com/asp/orderStatus.asp?country=OM)
and enter the below details accordingly to check the transfer status.

MTCN: 7707657266
Sender's Fist name: Julie Irene
Sender's Last Name: Turton
Amount: $5000.00USD

With due respect, please get back to me urgently after
checking the fund transfer status by confirming the below
details so i can instruct you on how to send the $85 to
us for the reactivation of the MTCN.

Full Name:
Current Personal Phone Number:
Country Of Residence:
Ready To Pay The Activation Fee? Indicate Yes or No:

Thanks
Best Regards
Mr. Tiffany Santos.
Email: westernunionoutlet@foxmail.com
western union Office,
NIGERIA OFFICE.
Western Union® Money Transfer

Anti-fraud resources: