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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: safia.farkash@zing.vn
Reply-To: elbrasaisafia@gmail.com
Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 15:31:09 +0000
Subject: I want to work with you

My Dear Friend,

I am Mrs. Safia Farkash, the wife of late Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi. I am contacting you with the hope that you will be of great assistance to stand by me to claim and invest the only money left for the family.

There is undiscovered deposit of $250M (Two Hundred and Fifty million U.S dollars only) cash lying in a financial company in one of the Asia countries which I shall reveal to you as we proceed. I therefore personally appeal to you seriously and religiously for your urgent assistance by changing the funds profile to your name or company name and take over the money and invest it into a good business which will be beneficial to both families. My family and I cannot be involved in financial transaction at the moment because of several sanctions place on me and my family. You should also be aware that I am wanted person by the Libya government, so all our communication should be strictly confidential. I have to run into hiding after the plan to arrest me, my daughter and the rest of my family in Algeria failed all in quest to destroy the entire Gaddafi legacy.

Presently, the Government has intensified their probe into my husband’s finances and that of the entire family that bear Gaddafi. This has led to the freezing of all our accounts, local and foreign, the revoking of all our business licenses and the arrest of my First son and the other of my son on a house arrest in Niger Republic, these you might already be aware of. In view of this development, I want to act very fast to entrust this money into your care before it will be discovered and seized too. My husband deposited the money in a finance firm for safe keeping while he was still alive. No record of this fund is known to the government of Libya and the country where the money is because there is no documentation showing that we have such funds. It was deposited with a company name that does not exist and have no link to my family.

Due to the current situation of my family, this has led me to result to the use of the internet to seek a reliable person who can assist us in taken over the money, move it from the country it is now and manage it till thing get better for the family. I know is very risky to entrust such a huge amount of money in a stranger’s hands but is better for you to disappoint me and go with the money then those blood suckers to lay their dirty hands on the money. But if you can be loyal and can do accord to instructions, I am ready to offer Fourteen million, three hundred thousand US dollars out of the money to you and your family for the transaction will demand your time, little of your own finance and unfailing commitment and these three underline cannot be compromised.

If this proposal does not satisfy you, kindly send your reply to state so without been sarcastic and simply delete it and in return accept my apology for intruding into your private life. Please do not let this information off your computer for security reason for where we are hiding now we were giving condition to stay and if the story comes out we will be immediately be arrested and prosecuted and at my age and my health I will not live more than two week in detention before death will find me.

I will greatly appreciate if you accept my proposal in good faith.

Regards and Allah bless you.

Mrs. Safia Farkash

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