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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: "John Lee Atwood" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <johnsl08888@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 3 Apr 2015 21:08:56 +0100
Subject: I belief you

Dear Friend,



I am John Lee Atwood, I am sorry to have to reach you this way but sometimes the things you do not plan are the ones that work out best and the people you don’t know are those that will fight for you. I am 84 years old and have been diagnosed with Leukemia and heart problems. Unfortunately, my doctor has now confirmed that I am in a terminal stage and have just days, maybe weeks to live. Though I have achieved all I should achieve as a man and lived a good life, I still feel unfulfilled as I have lived a reckless life and was not very nice to people as I was nothing short of a sadist. I am looking for redemption and want to die peacefully by knowing I eventually made a difference in peoples lives. As a result, I handed all of my property to different members of my family to help share amongst different charities in Asia, Africa and South America, but unfortunately most of my wealth was kept for their own selfish needs and split amongst them. This is why I am contacting you, a
s a to
tal stranger to see to it that yo

he had not left a will and the money would soon revert to the state .

What I plan to do is to transfer the claim to you as I am no longer strong enough to pursue it and pray that you will carry out my last wishes. If we proceed, I will be handing you over to my late uncle Atwood’s wealth manager to give you information and guide you on how to complete the claim. As the heir, if I do not transfer or complete the claim shortly, in a few weeks time it will revert automatically to the state, and end up to be shared among corrupt China officials. I think this is an honest opportunity to add value to the lives of the needy. As long as you follow the guidelines of the wealth manager, there is absolutely no risk, and all the necessary paperwork to transfer the claim to you legitimately will be at my expense my friend.

This is simple reason for contact you. I understanding that because of way world was now, you might have worry about my Proposal, but remember my friend “only those who make an attempt to start the journey, are only one know whether they complete the journey in end or not” .I will wait to hear from you my good friend. If for reason you are not interest, You can please be destroy this E-mail. Bless you.

Thank you for take time read this message. Greetings from Hong Kong.



Yours faithful

John Lee Atwood

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