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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: "Margret Bennett" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <bennettm49@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 2015 01:33:09 -0800
Subject: Greeting in the name of God

Greeting in the name of God.
 
How are you doing? I hope you are doing well. May the name of God be praise and worship forever.
I write to you in good faith and hoping that you will understand the importance of my email.
My decision to contact you is because I have been recently diagnosed with Cancer and the
doctor said I have less than 8 weeks to live. Since this sudden news was announced to me,
I have been reflecting over my life in the past. It is painful that after over 24 years of peaceful
marriage with my late husband, we had no child of our own that will inherit our numerous wealth.
In the past, I have made reasonable donations to the victims of Earthquake in Haiti and recently
to the same victims in Japan and Thailand and also support the victim of Boko Haram terrorist in
Northern part of Nigeria, Now that my health is gradually deteriorating, I cannot continue to do all
these by myself any more. I strongly desire to reach out to the poor and needy people, but I would
prefer to continue this with the assistance of a kind person.
 
I want you to answer the following questions, (1) are you a God fearing person? (2) If I donate
(5,000,000.00 GBP) Five Million Great Britain pounds to you, can you be able to utilize it wisely to
achieve my heart desire of supporting poor people around you? (3)Will you open a charity foundation
in the name of I and my husband? Please write me back as soon as possible.
 
Yours Faithfully
 
Mrs. Margaret Bennett

Anti-fraud resources: