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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: "Ms. Carman L. Lapointe - Head of United Nations Under-Secretary-General For Internal Oversight Servi" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <c.lapointe@mynet.com>
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 23:02:38 +0300
Subject: Re: Unpaid Beneficiary ...

From: Ms. Carman L. Lapointe
Head of United Nations Under-Secretary-General For Internal Oversight Services.


To: Unpaid Beneficiary,

This is to inform you that I came to Nigeria yesterday from Canada, after series of complaint from the FBI and other security agencies and commissions in Asia, Europe, South America and the United States of America respectively, cited against some West African countries, the Federal Government of Nigeria and the British Government for the high volume of fraudulent activities on-going in these countries.

For more information about me kindly click on the link below or copy and paste the web address on your web browser.

http://www.un.org/Depts/oios/pages/usg.html

At this moment, as directed by UN secretary General Ban Ki-Moon - we are working in collaborations with the Nigerian Financial Crime Commission and we have decided to waive away all your clearance fees/charges and authorized the Government of Nigeria to effect your overdue payment worth $10.5M only into your account without any delay as approved and instructed by the Canadian government wholly supported by the UNITED NATIONS.

As a listed beneficiary on file, the only fee you will pay to receive your fund is the Notarization Fee. Upon your request, I will tell you the amount and also send you the payment information you will use in sending the Notarization Fee.

Sincerely, you are a lucky person because I have just discovered that some top Nigerian and Canadian Government Officials are interested in your fund and they are working in collaboration with One Mr. Richard Graves from USA to frustrate you and thereafter divert your fund into their personal account.

Note that I have a very limited time to stay here in Nigeria, so I would like you to urgently respond to this message with your full name, current residence address, direct phone number so that I can advise you on how best to confirm your fund into your account within the next 72 hours.
Once again, the only fee you will pay to receive your fund is the Notarization Fee.

You can reach me on:
Email Address: clapointe@mynet.com



Sincerely yours,

Ms. Carman L.Lapointe
Head Of United Nations Under-Secretary
General For Internal Oversight Services

Anti-fraud resources: