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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: Suzanne Jones <suzannej2003@gmail.com>
Reply-To: suzannej1015@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 2015 13:17:07 +0000
Subject: Brethren,

Brethren,

Greetings to you and your family! My name is Suzanne Jones, I am a
Filipino 59 years old deaf aging widow suffering from a terminal
disease Cancer for about 5 years now. I have just been informed by my
doctor that I have a short time now to live on earth, I have no kids
and my husband is dead and most of my trusted relatives are also dead.

During my quiet time with the lord, he has directed me to inform you
of his Desire to have you as his servant, I inherited the sum of (Five
million, five hundred thousand United States Dollars) from my late
husband and now that I have a short time to live on earth, I sought
for an honest person that will distribute the funds among the charity
homes not just within the Philippines but around the world, I got your
contact through a deep search of likely relatives.

However, I have realized that if anything happens to me now, the bank
will use that as an opportunity to confiscate the funds. Hence I have
prayed and cried to the lord for divine direction and he gave me a
vision of faith in my dreams then I woke up and opened my bible to
Leviticus 5:15 : which says "if any one commits a breach of faith and
sins unwittingly in any of the holy things of the LORD or defy the
lord's command, he shall bring, as his guilt offering to the LORD a
ram without blemish out of the flock, valued by you in shekels of
silver, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, it is a guilt
offering".

I beseech you at this point to help me realize my dreams and obey
God's given command, more privileged information will be communicated
to you upon receipt of your positive response.

I look forward to your prompt reply.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Jones

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