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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: "DropBox" (may be fake)
Date: Fri, 1 May 2015 03:45:15 +0800
Subject: A file has been sent to you

Untitled 2
Google Accounts  
Hi User, 

This is to bring to your attention that a PDF file has been sent to you on DropBox.

As part of our security precautions, the file has been password protected, click on the box below to access the file.

Download PDF File 

Sincerely,
The DropBox team
This email can't receive replies. For more information, visit the Google Accounts Help Center.
If you have received this email in error, kindly ignore it.
You received this mandatory email service announcement because a secured PDF file has been sent to you. 

© 2015 Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA

Anti-fraud resources: