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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: "UNITED NATIONS" (may be fake)
Reply-To: <officeun02@yahoo.com.hk>
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 2015 16:02:32 +0100
Subject: RECEIVE YOUR OVER-DUE FUNDS

Our Ref: WB/NF/UN/XX029
Attention: Beneficiary,
We are very sorry for the delay in transferring this fund of (US$10.5M)TEN MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS to your personal Account; sorry for the delay, and listen while we present our good reasons to you.  Our reasons are:
In the Year 2004, the United Nations office partly got burnt and most contractors information were lost, so in our efforts to retrieve lost data, we unanimously decided to go online to requisite data base and there your name and e-mail were seen to match one of the missing information of one of the unpaid contractor in our payroll. Having understood your unstable financial situation, we in United Nations Office has begged the Bank to accept payment by installment on your behalf; this is to assist our numerous beneficiaries worldwide to receive their delayed payment. United Nations owes you the sum of $10.5 M (Ten Million Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars).
Installments means, the fund will be transferred little by little into your account, and once the first part of the fund is transferred to your account, you are advised to withdraw from your account to facilitate the transfer of the rest of the funds. Today, urgently write the Bank and request for your fund to be transferred to your personal Bank Account or through ATM CARD by installments.*(little by Little)*. This will help you to withdraw money from your Account to facilitate the transfer of the remaining fund.  If you are interested.
kindly Contact: Rev.Charles Woods
personal e-mail: unitednations518@gmail.com
Your attention to this note will be highly appreciated.
Repy to show understanding on this note.
Congratulations!
 
MR. BAN KI-MOON
(UN) SECRETARY GENERAL

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