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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: "PETERSON" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <neilpeterson486@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2014 13:30:32 +0100
Subject: PLEASE TREAT AS URGENT

>From The Desk of Mr. Neil Peterson
Bill And Exchange Manager
Foreign Remittance Dept Bank of Spain. Western Europe
Attention: Sir/Madam
I sourced your email from a human resource profile database in the chamber; my name is Mr. Neil Peterson, an account officer to late Mr. Morris Thompson from Spain who is a Gold merchant Agent here in Madrid, a well-known Philanthropist who died last year before he died.
He made a Will stating that $15.5M (Fifteen Million, Five Hundred Thousand U.S. Dollars Only) should be given to any citizen of our choice overseas and that person should use the money to help less privilege and other charity work before keeping the rest for him or herself, I have made a random draw and your e-mail address was picked as the beneficiary to this Will.
I am particularly interested in securing this money from the Bank because they have issued a notice instructing me been the account officer to produce the beneficiary of this before end of this 2014 else the money will be credited to the Government treasury as per law here. It is my utmost desire to execute the Will of my late client Mr. Morris Thompson since he is no more alive, both wife Thelma Thompson, and daughter Sheryl Thompson.
Please for more details concerning him and how he died, you can visit this website: ttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/madrid-crash-the-holiday-flight-into-hell-904103.htm If you are interested, you are required to contact me immediately to start the documentation process with the help of a legal practitioner.
I urge you to contact me immediately for further details bearing in mind that the Bank has given us a date limit, please act fast.
I await your urgent response.
Mr. Neil Peterson.
Bank of Spain Madrid Western Europe.

Anti-fraud resources: