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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: "Dr. Thomas Gomez" <a.caravaggio@alice.it>
Reply-To: thomas.gomez26@yahoo.it
Date: Fri, 6 Mar 2015 20:23:50 +0100 (CET)
Subject: Notification


Notification
Your email address has been allocated with the amount of
$1,500,000.00 dollars by the European Payments Council. Your award-winning bank
draft has been loaded into ATM Card which you can use in
withdrawing your money anywhere in the world. For more information and
claims, contact our zonal payment coordinator with your details. E-mail:
(epcoffice12@gmail.com) Contact Person:
Mr. Martin A. Tel: +229-99 646 783

Best Regards
Dr. Thomas Gomez

Anti-fraud resources: