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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: "Mr. Donald Francis" <operacao@ldbtrust.com.br>
Reply-To: donald.francis@o2.pl
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 18:50:07 +0700
Subject: LETTER OF COMPENSATION/SETTLEMENT

This letter will definitely be amazing to you because of its realistic value. Sorry for the inconveniences that was rendered to you in your line of Inheritance Payment transaction with some impersonators some while ago. I know that this letter will hit you by surprise, but firstly I will like to introduce myself; I am (Paul Wilson Wells ) the Deputy Commissioner, Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement Presently, we are being paid by our government in order to avert beneficiary funds delays/fraud in Nigeria, Republic of Benin, UK etc.

So far in this present year, we have settled the likes of (Mrs. Debbie Hargrove, Mr. Micheal Wagner , Patricia Norton , Emason Ayers, Ptricia Cuets, Gobe Lopez etc). You are being contacted by this office today because your Case File (Ai) is the very first File on our Settlement Files Cabinet. From our intelligent investigations and Probing processes we discovered that you are a victim of fraud/funds delay. The "Homeland Security", is faithfully under our governance as the Deputy Commissioner, Florida Dept.of Law Enforcement and to this Authority I took an oath of allegiance to settle all fraud victims/fund delay peacefully. This Memorandum is to notify you that you will be settled by the Homeland Security from our initial Deposit Account. Your settlement will be actualized within 5 working days after your response to this Official Letter. For further clarification/investigation kindly send the below information to us immediately:

1. FullName:
2. Your residential address:
3. Mobile and fax number (for regular official contact).
4. Your inheritance funds value:
5. Amount which you have lost previously (if at all):

This above-mentioned information will officially enable us to carry out our verification processes and after that your compensation sum/Inheritance Funds will be electronically wired into your designated Bank account or through a Diplomatic Delivery Service, depending on which mode you prefer. Your immediate compliance to this will expedite actions on your Payment because here in this office, we have several of listed victims to be settled.

Officially Signed,
Donald Francis
Deputy Commissioner
Florida Dept. of Law Enforcement

Anti-fraud resources: