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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: Geneva Duff <msnn123@barid.com>
Reply-To: genevaduff@torontomail.com
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2015 13:22:54 +0200
Subject: From: Mrs. Geneva Duff

My beloved,

I am Mrs Geneva Duff, from Canada, a widow to late Mr. William Duff. I
am 59 years old, and suffering from long time cancer of the breast. From
all indication my condition is really deteriorating and it is quite
obvious that i might not live more than two weeks, according to my
doctor because the cancer has gotten to a very worst / dangerous stage.

My late husband and my only child died last three years ago, his death
was politically motivated. My late husband was a very rich and wealthy
business man who was running his cocoa / timber plantation business in
Côte d'Ivoire. After his death, i started managing all his business and
wealth. My late husband deposited $8.5 million dollars in one of the big
bank in this country Cote d'Iviore, he wanted to use the fund to expand
his cocoa / timber plantation business to other African countries before
his sudden death.

This fund is still in this bank till today, now that my doctors has
advised me that i may not live for more than five weeks because of
sickness, i decided to donate the sum of $8,500,000.00 ( Eight million,
five hundred thousand united states dollars) for humanitarian work
because i cannot take this money to the grave.

I sincerely request for your assistance in this humanitarian work. I
want to transfer the fund to your bank account so that you will use 80%
of the fund to help the following people:

1, Motherless babies.
2, Widows.
3, Disable people.

The 20% of the fund is for you and your family, if you will accept to do
this humanitarian work. You will promised me that you will not
disappoint me when the fund will be transferred to your bank account
there in your country, and you will also assured me that you will use
the 80% of the money for the said purpose.

Reply to me urgently if you are interested in this transaction because
any delay to your response will give me a room to look for another
reliable person for the same purpose, hoping to hear from you.

Thanks and God bless you.

Mrs. Geneva Duff

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