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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: lillian Thompson <missliltom@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2015 13:17:00 +0100
Subject: Greeting dear,

Greeting dear,
Please permit me to introduce myself to you and my reason for
contacting you. My name is Lillian Thompson, I am 19 years old orphan
girl from Republic of Cote D'Ivoire, but now I am in Republic of Togo
because of the money I inherited from my late father which is in a
bank here in Republic of Togo. The amount is US$2.7Million (Two
million, Seven Hundred Thousand USD) I need your assistance to claim
the money in the bank here and transfer to your bank account in your
country. If you are interested, please reply me so that I can detail
you in full.
God bless you and your family.
Miss. Lillian Thompson

Anti-fraud resources: