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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.

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Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:

Fraud email example:

From: Maria Eden <mariaeden12@msn.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2015 13:28:50 +0000
Subject: KINDLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND GET BACK TO ME


Dearest

My name is Mrs.Maria Eden and am a cancer patient who have suffered from a long terminal cancer that has damaged all my vital organs in the body. am married to Mr.Patrick Eden who died over 5yrs ago.we have no children before my husband died and as such i started controlling his chains of business. I am now a new christian convert because i have come to realize that wealth acquisition without Christ Jesus are all vanity upon vanity. since i became a new christian convert i have lean't to always help the poor and the needy and my God directed me to search for you through the internet and i searched and got you. God said that I should Will the sum of GBP-40,000,000.00 British Pounds that i have in my bank account to you so that you can use it to help the poor and the needy and i also want you to open a non governmental organization that will always take care of the cancer patients since the doctors have confirmed that i will die within a month because of this long terminal cancer.
Please i have made all the arrangements and you have to use the 60% of the funds to help the poor people and cancer patients more especially the women who are seriously suffering from acute Cancer and poverty while the 40% goes to you for your services and personal effects.Please remember that God directed me to will this funds to you and also remember that am not asking you for anything, just follow my instructions so that you can help me to reach out to the poor cancer patients out there since my doctor have confirmed that i will die within a months time. I have suffered serious terminal cancer of the breast and my two breast have been cut off and the cancer have eaten up every vital organs in my body and the doctors have confirmed that I will die in a months time.
Please kindly note that am not asking you to give me any money rather am soliciting for your assistance in helping me to executive my project of reaching out to the poor masses out there suffering from the same illness as i do now. So please kindly get back to me with your name in full, your country,your marital status, your age,your telephone number,your occupation, your residential address etc , so that i will instruct my bank to contact you and i will also instruct my lawyer to handle the legal affairs of this transactions.Please also note that you can come to London and confirm that the existence of this fund is real and genuine. I will inform my lawyer to prepare the necessary legal documents immediately i hear from you.
Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus,Mrs.Maria Eden

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