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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: Therese Bodmer <therese.bodmer@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Therese Bodmer <theresebodmer@ymail.com>
Date: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 18:58:38 +0000 (UTC)
Subject: VERY URGENT PLS


Hello,
It is my pleasure to introduce myself to you before going into details of what am about to discuss with you. I am Mrs. Therese Bodmer from Ivory Coast, in West Africa. I got  married with Mr. Franck Bodmer for 17 years before his demise in 2012 and our union was blessed with a boy. We are from the town in nothern part of my Country Ivory Coast called "SEGULA" where my husband had a Gold mining field (family inheritance) and he sold quantities the gold substance acquired from our field in Europe. 
I am hereby informing you about equivalent $5.8 Million USD which he made from previous sale of the Gold substance previously, which he sealed in box and deposited it as family valuables at a Security Company vault in Europe before his demise. Unfortunately, after his death on December 2012, the field was forcefully taken from us by the rebel who fought to bring in the new government into power.
Now my son and I are in dire situation here because our region was badly affected during the political crisis that gripped our country, now we are living near the frontier between this country and Guinea were we are in a high risk because of out break of Ebola virus epidemic in that country. We lost everything and living in a very bad condition. My Son and I are left with nothing at this point, hence i decided to confide in you and seek for your sincere help to retrieve the box containing the sum of $5.8 Million from the security company. 30% will be your share of this funds while 70% will be for my son and I. Our intentions is to invest this funds in a profitable field outside Africa, where we hope to spend the rest of our lives in peace and good comfort.
If you are interested and willing to help us in this to enter this confidential business relationship with us, please do contact me at your convinient for more details. I wait for your response as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely
Mrs. Therese Bodmer.

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