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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: Mrs Ivan Thomas <lvanthomas386@gmail.com>
Reply-To: Mrs Ivan Thomas <ivan_thomas005@yahoo.co.jp>
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 2015 08:55:12 +0900 (JST)
Subject: GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU REPLY URGENTLY


GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU REPLY URGENTLY
 
Dear Child of God.

Calvary Greetings in the name of the LORD Almighty and Our LORD JESUS CHRIST the giver of every good thing.
 
Good day and compliments of the seasons, i know this letter will definitely come to you as a huge surprise, but I implore you to take the time to go through it carefully as the decision you make will go off a long way to determine my future and continued existence. I am Mrs. Ivan Thomas an aging widow of 61 years old suffering from long time illness.
 
I have some funds I inherited from my late husband, the sum of $14,500,000.00 and I needed a very honest and God fearing Christian who can withdraw this money then use the funds for Charity works. I WISH TO GIVE THIS FUNDS TO YOU FOR CHARITY WORKS. I found your email address from the internet after honest prayers to the LORD to bring me a helper and i decided to contact you if you may be willing and interested to handle these trust funds in good faith before anything happens to me.
 
I am desperately in keen need of assistance and I have summoned up courage to contact you for this task, you must not fail me and the millions of the poor people in our today WORLD. This is no stolen money and there are no dangers involved,100%  RISK FREE with full legal proof. Please if you would be able to use the funds for the Charity works please kindly let me know immediately.
 
Please kindly respond quickly for further details, reply quick or you

will give me room to contact someone else to handle this task on my

Warmest Regards

Mrs Ivan Thomas.

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