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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: Alfred George Leonard <elenamaria490@gmail.com>
Reply-To: alfredgeorgeleo5@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 2014 02:44:31 -0800
Subject: Your Urgent Attention Is Highly Needed

Hello,

I am Alfred George Leonard, An American Citizen; born on JUNE 10 1963,
currently living and working here in Benin Republic, I am the Personal
Secretary to Mr. Donald Railton, the controller of National Lottery, Benin
(Lottery National Benin). Please I am having big problem now, I have a 5yrs
old daughter who has leukemia, a disease of the blood, and she needs a bone
marrow transplant or she will die.

Please I am only asking for your help and you will benefit from it also. As
an insider with National Lottery, working as the personal secretary to the
controller, I want you to send me your name, address, tel, date of birth so
that I can play the lotto on your name, I have numbers that are going to
win, and the numbers are in his secret data system in the office.

The National Lottery is an online entry with credit card anywhere you are
with your name and address, then you will pay with credit card. All I want
you to do is to send me the name to play with while I will send you the
wining numbers I played for keep. I am going to play it with my credit card
on your name and the winning will be shared on equal ratio between both of
us, and I will send you the ticket for claim, immediately the results are
released they will contact you for payment as the oversea winner.

Please if you are interested do get back to me so that I will know what
else to do on time, If you want I will send you my data. The lotto can be
played with $850-995 United State Dollars, but the winning amount will be
over $5.5 Million USD.

Remember that I am the one going to play it in your name with my credit
card; I just want to front you for this, because I need this money to save
the life of my little daughter.

Thanks and I wait for your answer

Alfred George Leonard.

Anti-fraud resources: